Police are waiting for the autopsy results on two homeless men found dead Saturday.
“Both men were part of our community. They will be missed,” said Doug McGillis, community ministries director for the Salvation Army.
The deaths are unrelated and are not believed to be suspicious, said Sgt. Craig Massey of Campbell River RCMP. It’s unknown how they died.
“Our extreme weather shelter was open on Friday night. They had a place to go to,” McGillis said.
It was around 2 a.m. Saturday when pedestrians found a 57-year-old man dead in the wooded area between Nunns Creek Park and Campbell River Common mall. An area that’s been used for years as a campsite for homeless people.
Then at 2 p.m., people out for a walk in the wooded area in the 100 block of Dogwood Street found a deceased 67-year-old man.
Massey confirmed that both men were homeless and appeared to be living in the areas where they were found.
Both scenes were investigated by the major crimes and forensic units, and those investigations are now complete.
Autopsy results on both men are expected this week. The names of the men have not been released.
McGillis said one of the deceased was a First Nations man who had been visiting the Salvation Army’s shelters and soup kitchens for at least seven years. The other man was Caucasian.
According to McGillis, approximately 30-50 people are homeless in the city.
But the actual number is believed to be much higher, he added, due to people “couch surfing” or temporarily staying with friends or relatives.
During December, 103 people stayed in the Sally Ann’s emergency shelter while another 445 stayed at the shelter on Evergreen Road.
Also during December, the Salvation Army served 572 people food through the organization’s sandwich van and 1,608 at Lighthouse Centre soup kitchen on Cedar Street.