Two days after a deceased male was found in a blueberry field near No. 2 and Boundary roads on the Abbotsford-Chilliwack border, RCMP divers searched the Vedder Canal in Chilliwack a few hundred metres away.
It was unclear if the divers were searching for a weapon, another body or something else in the waters under the Keith Wilson Bridge. An Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) spokesperson was not immediately available to comment Friday afternoon.
On Wednesday, when a farmer saw what turned out to be the dead body in his blueberry field, he initially thought it was someone passed out drunk.
"I said, 'Hey buddy, get up,'" Boota Poonia told the Times at the site Thursday on No. 2 Road just metres away from Boundary Road, which divides Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
But when he got closer, he immediately realized the man was dead with what appeared to be bullet wounds in his buttocks and his head.
The farmer said the deceased male had bees or wasps on his face, possibly indicating the body had been there for many hours.
"I was scared," he said.
Few official details have been released but the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) confirmed Thursday a deceased male was found, APD officers and Major Crime detectives are on scene, and IHIT has assumed responsibility for the investigation.
It was just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday when Poonia and his wife came across the body and called police.
Dozens of police immediately arrived at the scene according to another witness who is temporarily living on the property.
An RCMP helicopter landed around 7 p.m. and No. 2 Road was blocked off until 8 p.m. Thursday as officers investigated.
The witness said she saw what appeared to be unusual activity for a number of hours Wednesday at the back of the blueberry field and near where the body was found. She assumed it to have something to do with the farm, but the farm owner said neither he nor his crew were in this part of the property when she witnessed the activity.
She also thought it might have been suspicious since the individual was white and not South Asian like the farmer, his wife and their workers.
There is no word yet on the name of the deceased or if the police have any suspects.