Man charged with indignity to human remains in Maple Ridge, IHIT says

After scouring a missing woman’s home for days, police revealed they have found her remains.

A man has been charged with indignity to human remains in connection to a missing person investigation in Maple Ridge, homicide investigators say.

The charge against Mylie Barron was laid Wednesday, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said in a statement Thursday.

IHIT was called to a home in the 22800 block of Gillis Place – a small, residential cul-de-sac off Harrison Street – Wednesday, along with the Integrated Forensic Identification Service.

Officers from Ridge Meadows RCMP had been at the home since Tuesday, gathering information related to an ongoing missing person investigation, according to IHIT.

In its statement Thursday, the homicide team said it has taken over that investigation, identifying the missing person as Maple Ridge resident Jessica Cunningham.

Police located human remains inside the home on Tuesday and are working with the B.C. Coroners Service to confirm their identity, said Staff Sgt. David Lee, at a news conference Thursday.

Investigators said Cunningham was last seen in June and was reported missing in July. Since then, the Ridge Meadows detachment has been “actively working to locate her,” IHIT said.

Part of the detachment’s effort was making a public appeal for information on her disappearance, which it did on Aug. 22.

Asked why it took so long for Ridge Meadows RCMP to notify the public that Cunningham was missing, Lee said he could not elaborate on the details of the investigation, noting only that the investigative steps police took led them to revisit the home on Gillis Place and find the remains.

The house was Cunningham’s residence, and police believe she and Barron were in an intimate relationship, Lee said. He said it’s too early in the investigation to describe the case as intimate partner violence.

As of Thursday, police and the coroners service were still working to identify the remains, and Lee said determining how long they had been in the home before police discovered them will also be a “priority.”

“I don’t have that information as to how long they’ve been there for,” he said. “It’s early in the investigation, and that’s one of the things we’re trying to figure out right now.”

In the statement, Lee said police are “working diligently to understand the circumstances” of Cunningham’s disappearance and death.

“Investigators are releasing her name and photo and seeking assistance to build a timeline of her activity leading up to the missing persons report,” he said.

IHIT asked anyone with information related to the investigation to call investigators at 1-877-551-4448 or to email [e-mail].