Image Credit: RCMP Handout
RICHARD JULES

Coroner rules Richard Jules’ death as undetermined

Mar 19, 2020 | 8:53 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops man who was missing for more than two months before his remains were found died of an undetermined cause.

That’s according to a report from the BC Coroners Service which investigated, the death of 48-year-old Richard Jules.

The immediate cause of death, the means by which it happened, and the classification of death have all been ruled undetermined.

In the report, coroner Andrew Cave says Jules’s skull was discovered by someone walking in a field on the Tk’emlups reserve on Feb. 1, 2020.

The skull was identified through dental records as that of Jules.

Cave says friends reported that on the evening of Nov. 23, 2019, they were at a firepit with Jules near the area where his skull was found more than two months later. Jules had fallen asleep during the evening and remained beside the firepit overnight.

The RCMP was able to determine that the group was at the firepit on the evening of Nov. 24. On Nov. 25, his family went to his home and Jules was not there.

“On Nov. 27, 2019 he was reported missing to the RCMP. A search was conducted in the area at that time and no trace of Mr. Jules was found,” Cave says. “A police investigation found no evidence of foul play.”

Cave says no other remains of Jules’ have been found at this time.

Cave found no evidence on the skull to establish a cause of death, and a toxicological examination was not possible.

Cave determined Jules’s date of death to be Nov. 25.