The BC Coroners Service has confirmed the identity of a male whose remains were found near Grand Forks in June.
He was Owen Kiernan Rooney, an electrician from Australia, who was 24-years-old when he went missing on August 14th, 2010.
Rooney left the Boundary Hospital in Grand Forks that evening, leaving his belongings behind.
He had been hitchhiking back to Kelowna, which is where he was living after a trip to Shambhala Music Festival near Salmo.
Members of the Grand Forks Search and Rescue Unit found the remains in a bush at the bottom of a steep cliff near the base of Hardy Mountain while on a training exercise on June 10th, 2017.
Post-mortem testing, coordinated by the BC Coroners Service Special Investigations Unit, has now confirmed that the remains are those of Rooney.
The cause of Rooney’s death is unknown and the BC Coroners Service are still investigating.
Rooney’s family, who returned to Australia after spending more than six months in Canada looking for him, have been notified of his death.
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