RCMP investigating suspicious death of 36-year-old man in Duncan

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RCMP are treating the recent death of a 36-year-old man in Duncan as suspicious.

Mounties found the man dead in the third-floor hallway of Gala Vista Apartments in the 1000 block of Government Avenue at around 6:30 a.m. Saturday after they were called to assist B.C. Ambulance.

WATCH: Police are investigating at a Duncan apartment building, while a local residents group tries to address increasing crime in the community. April Lawrence reports.

DUNCAN CRIME APRIL

DUNCAN CRIME APRIL

Duration 3m

2017-06-11

The man has been identified as Ryan Hendrick Young. He is described as Caucasian, 6-feet-tall and weighing 245 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. He was found wearing a black hoodie and grey pants. The circumstances of his death are believed to be suspicious, police said. He was known to police.

READ MORE: Few details as RCMP cordon off Duncan apartment building all weekend

The RCMP’s Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU), along with the North Cowichan/Duncan general investigations unit and the forensics identification section are conducting the investigation. Officers were seen going through dumpsters Monday morning.

Anxiety has been running high in the apartment building since the discovery of the body.

“Knowing the stigma of the building the first thought out of my mind is my fiancé going to be safe,” Richard Bonneau said.

“That’s the first thing out of my mind. Next door basically to my apartment.”

Bonneau said he walked past the body and the RCMP investigation just outside his door on his way to work.

“Ten feet from me, six feet from me,” Bonneau said.

“Took everything to just avert my eyes.”

The Duncan man is also going over what he heard the night before.

“Arguing, glass breaking against walls, a lot of people running in and out of the stairwell,” Bonneau said.

“Like forcibly pushing the doors open to get out of the building. It was crazy to wake up the next morning and realize that that had happened,”

Bonneau said RCMP have not told much about the case.

“Quite crazy and to have no information come out yet it’s quite disconcerting,” Bonneau said.

RCMP would not comment on why it took them so long to notify residents in this complex full of children about a possible murder or whether the public was at risk in the meantime.

“There’s a school right there,” Duncan resident Gerald Acorn said.

“Yeah you can look through and the kids are there everything. It’s just crazy.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the VIIMCU tipline at 250-380-6211 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

With files from Skye Ryan

Alexa HuffmanAlexa Huffman

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