Body discovered in Richmond home deemed suspicious: IHIT

Body found inside Richmond home Homicide investigators have been called in after a gruesome discovery was made inside a Richmond house.

Sept. 21 update: Homicide investigators have identified a man who was found dead in an abandoned Richmond home Thursday as 37-year-old Michael Thompson.

Homicide detectives are investigating after Mounties found a man's body inside a Richmond, B.C. home Thursday morning.

A friend of the victim discovered the body and phoned police, who arrived at a residence in the 9000 block of Odlin Road near Garden City Road shortly after 8:30 a.m.

Officers quickly deemed the death suspicious and called in the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which spent several hours at the home.

Investigators say they've been able to identify the victim, but can't say what he was doing in the home, which was supposed to be unoccupied and was slated for demolition.

"Our forensic specialists and our IHIT crime scene investigators are going to suit up now and they're going to go inside, do a very careful examination, collect the evidence," IHIT spokesperson Cpl. Frank Jang said Thursday. "We are going to go through the body and see exactly what happened to our victim."

Police say they will likely release the victim's name publicly once they have notified his family of the death.

Anyone who might have information about the case is asked to contact investigators at 1-877-551-4448 (IHIT) or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

With files from CTV Vancouver's Ben Miljure