Two new specialist positions are now available to officers at the Nanaimo RCMP to help obtain and process the enormous volumes of information required for some cases to proceed to court. The two new officers will work Serious Crimes such as murders and child exploitation. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

ON THE JOB

New Nanaimo RCMP officers beginning to tackle complex murder, child pornography investigations

Oct 22, 2021 | 5:25 AM

NANAIMO — Local Mounties now have additional resources to deal with their most difficult, labour intensive cases.

A major case file specialist was hired several months ago to oversee the collection of information and organization of data for forwarding to the courts. A digital forensic technician will join the detachment shortly after a staffing issue is resolved to comb through phones and computers to aid investigators.

Cst. Gary O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW the additions come at a time when local officers are dealing with several high-profile, incredibly complex situations including five active homicide investigations and rising volumes of child pornography cases.

“Our Serious Crimes members are literally swamped dealing with significant files. Murders, we’re averaging about 35 child pornography files coming in every year and those numbers will increase.”

Nanaimo’s detachment handled around 15 child pornography cases in 2016 and 29 cases the year after.

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The increase stems to not only the accessibility of the illegal materials, but specialized officers being more efficient in finding offenders.

“Police have the resources to track the IP addresses associated to these terrible sites. The criminals are developing ways to try and mask their identity online but we believe we’re if not treading water, we’re moving ahead…so these people can be identified and held accountable.”

The positions were first announced by then-acting Supt. Lisa Fletcher in December 2020, who told Council her detachment was lagging behind due to a lack of resources in the highly specialized field.

“Right now we have a backlog of 100 devices [collected from child porn investigations], we don’t know the capacity that’s within those devices,” Fletcher said at the time. “If we send it out for analysis through independent, private agencies…it’s on average $6,000 a device,” Fletcher told councillors at the time.

In addition to an increase in child pornography cases, the Nanaimo detachment is at the centre of five ongoing murder investigations from 2021 alone.

The body of Randel Charles Thomas was discovered along the Nanaimo Parkway in late March, with police originally saying it was a suspicious death before later upgrading to a homicide investigation.

On May 20, a man linked to gang violence in the Lower Mainland was shot and killed behind the Wendy’s on the Island Hwy. near Rock City Rd.

In late May, police also conducted a multi-day search of Diver Lake and an apartment on Rosehill St. in relation to Sidney Mantee, who had been reported missing in March 2020.

On June 16, RCMP said they considered the death of Amy Watts near Victoria Cres. earlier in the month a homicide.

The fifth investigation was opened in August after the discovery of 30-year-old Ryan Mosher, a new resident to Nanaimo from Kelowna.

Nanaimo RCMP said they have no comment on the status of those investigations.

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alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley