THUNDER BAY -- The death of a 30-year-old woman found in a wooded area near Brant Street has been ruled not criminal in nature.
The body of Marie Lynette Spence was located on Sunday by a passerby and a post-mortem examination conducted on Monday in Toronto indicated she’d been there for several days.
While authorities don’t normally release names when foul play isn’t involved, in this case Thunder Bay Police Service wants to trace the woman’s final steps to help the coroner complete the post-mortem and provide closure to Spence’s family.
“There is still an investigation to be done here to assist the coroner and it’s really important to try to figure out what led up to her death in the days since she was last seen,” Adams said.
“It’s unusual for us to release the name of a deceased person in a sudden-death investigation unless it a homicide. In this case it was important to put a face and a name to the story to allow more information hopefully to come forward.”
Adams went on to say the woman is likely known in the community and there’s a chance someone might be able to shed light on the situation.
He was unable to say how Spence died.
“There are still things have to be done. There are toxicology (tests) and things like that that have to come back. But the preliminary examination and the post-mortem examination at this point doesn’t indicate that anything is criminal.”
Adams said as far as he knows, no missing persons report was filed, despite the fact Spence was likely not seen for several days until she was discovered.
Anyone with information pertinent to the case is asked to phone police at 684-1200 or log onto Crime Stoppers at www.tipsubmit.com.
