Remains of missing Kahnawake woman ID'd

Human remains found in an aboriginal community south of Montreal on Tuesday have been identified as those of a woman missing since 2006.

Dental records helped police identify the bones as those of Tiffany Morrison, 25, from the Kahnawake reserve, officials with the local police force confirmed on Friday.

The remains were found by a construction worker in a wooded area near the Mercier Bridge, which links Montreal with the South Shore region, said Warren White, an investigator with the Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers.

The bones had been covered with some branches, White said.

Though the cause of death has not been determined, White said the case has now become a criminal investigation.

"In the first investigation of the file, it was a missing person … and so people were asked questions but now the questions will be a little more intense," he said.

The night of her disappearance, Morrison was seen leaving a bar in Montreal's LaSalle district with a Kahnawake man, White said: "[They] took a taxi from the bar and that was the last anyone seen or heard from her."

Polygraph test refused

Prior to the discovery of Morrison's remains, White confirmed the man in question had refused to co-operate with investigators and refused to take a polygraph test.

White said investigators will also renew efforts to find the taxi driver who picked the pair up that night.

"We know there are two cab companies that existed in the LaSalle area that serviced the area where Tiffany was last seen," he said.

White said the confirmation of Morrison's death has left people in the small community of Kahnawake shocked, but also closer to feeling a sense of closure "because now [they know] that she has been recovered."

"But they also know that this is probably the tip of the iceberg because now there's more work to be done in trying to determine what was the cause of her death  and if anybody is responsible for that."