A body pulled from a pond in Garden City Park on New Year’s Eve is that of missing tourist Ephraigm Flores, The Richmond News reports.
According to the News, family members confirm it is Flores’ body.
Flores, 23, had not been seen since returning from a music event at B.C. Place on Boxing Day.
Richmond RCMP had asked the public to keep an eye out for the Toronto resident, but fears for his wellbeing grew as the police began to search the pond near Garden City Road and Granville Avenue.
But in the early afternoon of last Thursday, Dec. 31, search teams from the RCMP and Richmond Fire-Rescue discovered a body in the frigid waters just south of Garden City Park.
Police say there doesn’t appear to be suspicious circumstances surrounding the death but would only confirm that the body is that of a young male.
Flores’ family has now launched a crowdfunding campaign to fly his body home to Toronto for a funeral.The campaign has already raised more than $13,000 in its first day.
In an emotional post written by a woman identifying herself as Flores’ sister, the fundraiser states, “For the past few days, the Flores family spent the holidays looking for Ephraigm. He was lost. He was missing and everyone even people we do not know tried to search for him. In behalf of our family, thank you for all the efforts, it means a lot to us. Now, we found him. But, the situation was not what the family expected.”
It appears that Flores used to work as a nurse at Rosewood Manor in Richmond, as tributes to his character were posted online by his former colleagues.
Neither the coroner nor the RCMP has officially released the victim’s identity.