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By Susan McNeil

Cold case solved

DNA helps solve historic human remains case in Lloydminster

Mar 13, 2025 | 11:57 AM

Science has helped solve the mystery of who a set of human remains found near Lloydminster in 1997 belonged to.

A man’s body was found near the North Saskatchewan River in November of 1997. The Coroner’s investigation found nothing criminal but also nothing to identify who the remains belonged to.

DNA was collected but did not match with anything at the time, and a sample was left in the National DNA Data Bank of Canada for possible future resolution.

Decades later, the mystery of whose body was found has been solved after the Edmonton Police Service revived a cold case of their own.

“Our team worked with the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the National Missing Persons DNA Program, and the file was ultimately linked to a missing person investigation out of Edmonton,” said Cst. Brendan Sanford, Saskatchewan RCMP’s Missing Person Coordinator.

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EPS officers took DNA samples from the family members of Jose Valdez, a man who had been reported missing in Edmonton in late 1990. Last month, they found a match between the Edmonton samples and those of the Lloydminster remains.

Valdez was 36 when he went missing and his disappearance was not considered criminal by EPS nor did the investigation by the Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service find anything suspicious in the remains.

“We sympathize with Jose’s family for the decades of ambiguous loss they have suffered, and while this is difficult news, we hope it also brings some measure of resolution,” said Detective Glen Haneman, with the EPS Historical Crimes Section. “This is why we never stop investigating unsolved missing persons and unidentified human remains cases.”

Police frequently collect evidence in their investigations that can’t be used to help with an investigation at the time but hopefully will one day.

“Technology is transforming the way investigations are being approached and solved,” added Cst. Sanford. “It helps to uncover leads in ways that were not possible when the case first opened. Being able to bring closure to Jose’s loved ones is extremely rewarding and gives us hope that we can provide answers to other waiting families.”

The North Saskatchewan River also flows through Edmonton.

The EPS Missing Persons Unit currently has 95 unsolved missing persons files dating back as far as the 1970s.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social