THUNDER BAY - The cause of death of a missing teen found in the McIntyre River has been determined, but at the request of the family, the information is being kept private.
On Wednesday, the chief coroner’s office confirmed the identity of the body found on May 18 was that of 14-year-old, Josiah Begg and a post-mortem examination was performed to determine the cause of death.
“As for the cause of death, the family has requested that they would like to keep that to themselves, so we will respect that,” said Thunder Bay Police Staff Sgt. Ryan Hughes.
“I’ve had the opportunity of dealing with the immediate family for the last two weeks, so when they make the request, I have no issue respecting that,” Hughes continued. “They have been very supportive of our investigation and they understand the difficulties we’ve had to overcome during the last two weeks, so to respect that, it’s not a problem.”
According to Hughes, the investigation into Josiah’s disappearance and death is still ongoing and officers are continuing to follow up on all possible leads.
Josiah was the focus of an extensive search after he was last seen on May 6. Community and police searches combed areas across the city. On May 18, an OPP underwater search team located the body of Josiah in the McIntyre River.
During the course of the search, police did conduct searches of local river banks with the help of Thunder Bay Fire Rescue, but Hughes said there was no evidence to suggest that Josiah entered the water.
“We still have no evidence pointing in the direction of him going in the waterways,” Hughes said. “We know he was close to waterways, but no evidence suggested he was in the water. With the information we received, we started out ground searches in specific areas and we expanded. We had a boat right away with the fire department with an officer checking the shoreline and in the water.”
Investigators are continuing to examine surveillance footage of Josiah from the night of May 6 in order to piece together the timeline of events from that night.
“As for the timeline, we are still investigating,” he said. “Officers are still working, speaking to some witnesses. They flew up north to speak to a couple of witnesses and we are still following up on video.”
