Vancouver police say no remains have been found in the Rupert Street basement that was the subject of an intensive search into the disappearance of missing woman Catherine Mary Brown.
Her son, Robert Sturcz, 38, has said to media that his mother was a First Nations woman from the Lake Babine Nation, however Chief Wilf Adam from Lake Babine Nation said they are still trying to determine exactly who Catherine Mary Brown was.
"We are trying to find out if she is our member at all. At this point we do not know who she is," said Chief Adam to Lakes District News.
In later correspondence with Lakes District News, Chief Adam said, " As far as we can gather [Catherine Mary Brown] is a non native woman [who was] married to Kispiox band member Johnathan Daniel Brown. She had two kids Yuonne and Jonathan."
Despite the fact that 34 years have passed since her disappearance and no evidence of Brown’s remains have been found in an extensive search, the Vancouver Police Department say they are still committed to finding out what happened.
Brown, who was also known as Catherine Sturcz, vanished in 1977, however her disappearance went unreported for more than 30 years.
Vancouver police say that when information about her disappearance was finally brought forward to police for the first time in October of last year, the Vancouver Police Department missing persons unit took on the case.
According to a Vancouver Police Department news release, investigators discovered that there was absolutely no trace of Catherine Mary Brown to be found after 1977.
Robert Sturcz has spoken to media and said that he was five years old when he witnessed his father Aladar Sturcz murder his mother and bury her beneath the concrete floor of the basement in their family townhouse located at 4842 Rupert Lane in Vancouver.
Aladar Sturcz died in 1987.
On March 8, 2011, Vancouver Police with the assistance of the Simon Fraser University School of Archaeology and the forensic sciences section began to dig up the basement of the townhouse in search of the remains that were allegedly buried beneath the concrete floor.
According to the Vancouver Police, the search has concluded and no remains have been found however Sturcz has since said that the wrong basement had been dug up.
According to Strucz the family had previously lived in two apartments in the complex.
A Vancouver Police Department news release said, "Regrettably, we are no closer to finding out what happened to Catherine Mary Brown. We will continue to investigate this as a missing person’s case and also seek to gain a clearer understanding of why Robert Sturcz believes that he witnessed the murder of his mother in their family home so many years ago. Catherine Mary Brown would now be 76 years old."
A media liaison from the Vancouver Police Department said to Lakes District News that the information they have obtained about Brown, in particular that she was Aboriginal, had come from her son, Sturcz.
The media liaison also said that the police were aware that Sturcz had said the incorrect basement had been dug up.
"The case remains open, however we have no further plans to do any more digging," the media liaison said.
If anyone has information about this case, they are asked to contact the Vancouver Police missing persons unit at 604-717-2530 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.