Police divers and forensic experts continued their hunt Friday for clues about a woman's bones found in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.

Police divers search the waters of the Rideau Canal close to the place where a bag of human bones was found.
(CBC)

National Capital Commission workers found a bag of human bones on Oct. 17 in the bottom of the canal near Bronson Avenue and Dow's Lake as they did their annual fall draining and cleanup of the canal.

So far forensic examination has found that the bones belonged to a woman and police say they are treating the case as a homicide.

Forensic experts say the bones can be used to identify the person and sometimes reveal information about the circumstances of the death itself.

Cpl. Diane Cockle, a forensic specialist with the RCMP, said bones may provide access to two out of three methods investigators use to identify someone — dental charts and DNA.

Cpl. Diane Cockle, an RCMP forensic specialist, said bones can yield DNA to identify someone.
(CBC)

As for the third method, she said, "In this case, obviously, we don't have finger prints."

Cockle said bones can usually be used to figure out how old and how tall someone was, and their facial bone structure can provide clues about ethnic background.

If the death involved a forceful blow or gunshot wounds, that trauma may also leave its mark on the person's skeleton.

"But if it was something like poisoning or drowning you won't be able to tell just from the bones," Cockle said.

Police said the bag did not contain a complete skeleton, but they did not reveal what types of bones were inside.

Dr. Scott Fairgrieve, chair of the forensic science department at Laurentian University, said the quick determination that the bones belonged to a woman rather than a man means the bag likely contained part of a skull or a pelvis.

He said forensic examination of bones might also reveal whether the body decomposed in the water or was initially buried elsewhere.

Police investigators were still searching the canal waters and the shoreline for additional evidence on Friday.