Bones discovered west of Calgary confirmed as human

Police are investigating the discovery of human bones foundnear the community of Redwood Meadows, west of Calgary on Thursday.

The boneswere found in a rural area south of the intersection of Highway 8 and Highway 22 by a citizen walking on a nearby trail.

Members of the RCMP's forensic identification and major crimes units took the bones to the medical examiner's office whileCochrane RCMP searched the surrounding area with a police dog.

After an examination, the medical examiner confirmed the bones to be human, but the age, gender and ethnicity of the remains have still not been determined.

Bones 'moved around by animals'

The search of the area continued Friday andpolice said traffic along Highway 22 may be impacted as tactical operations officers work in the area.

"The bones that were found did have evidence they had been moved around by animals, so for that reason we're trying to widen the search area out from where we searched yesterday in case there are further remains in a bigger area," said RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters.

Peters said one of the next steps is to look into missing persons cases to try to establish who the remains belong to.

Police say the search is expected to wrap up later on Friday.

Redwood Meadows is about 40 kilometres west of Calgary.

• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Calgary pastor charged with 2nd-degree murder in baby son's death
• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Good Samaritan left to die alone in ditch by motorist he helped