Police have located a third set of human remains on a densely wooded property outside of Smiths Falls.
The remains have been identified as belonging to Lawrence Bertrim, who was 42 years old when he was last seen in downtown Smiths Falls on Sept. 30, 2022.
A cause of death has not been determined and charges have not yet been laid, police said.
The discovery is the latest strange revelation for Smiths Falls, a town southwest of Ottawa that in recent years has struggled to understand the disappearance of three men from the area, all of whom have now been traced back to a single parcel of land.
“We’re sad. We know now he is gone. But we’re happy he’s coming home,” said Bertrim’s mother, Lindle Mindle, who helped lead an active four-year campaign to locate her missing son.
“As a parent, I get to bury my child now. Which hurts. But I’m happy that I’m not going to my grave not knowing where he is.”
OPP Sgt. Erin Cranton said investigators found Bertrim’s remains on Aug. 6.
That means his discovery came a day after police found the remains of Robert Lambert on the same property, located at 572 Kelly-Jordan Rd. in Montague Township west of Highway 15.
Lambert was 75 when he was last seen in the summer of 2018. He had been an owner of the 40-acre Kelly-Jordan Road property, and his remains were long suspected of being interred somewhere amid the thickly growing trees there.
Bertrim’s connection to the address is unknown. Sgt. Cranton, meanwhile, confirmed no charges have been laid in connection to Lambert’s death.
“We understand there is concern from the public, as this is the third set of human remains located on the property on Kelly-Jordan Road,” Sgt. Cranton said in a video statement.
The OPP Criminal Investigation Branch has been searching the property, save for a hiatus over winter, since October, when they located the remains of another missing man , Robbie Thomson, 34.
OPP had not yet located Thomson’s body before they arrested three people in connection to his death.
Charged with first-degree murder are Christopher Philip Fenton, 48, Erin Lynn Mackie, 41, and Joshua Joseph Belfiori, 35, of Bath, Ont.
A fourth person, 42-year-old Mark Fenton, was arrested in April and charged with accessory after the fact to murder in connection with Thomson’s death.
Mark Fenton was released on bail in July.
Mackie was denied bail in March .
Christopher Fenton and Mackie were both listed on the police charge sheet as living at the Kelly-Jordan property at the time of their arrests.
The disappearances over recent years of Thomson, Lambert and Bertrim, all from the Smiths Falls area, led many in the small community to believe the men’s cases are linked.
A fourth man who locals frequently connect with the disappearances, Steven Tate, 34, was last seen alive on Nov. 4, 2023. His body turned up some days later at the side of Highway 15 not far from Kelly-Jordan Road.
Police long maintained they had no evidence linking the four men. They say Tate was the victim of a hit and run and have released images and video of a car they say may have been involved.
A familiar figure around downtown Smiths Falls, Bertrim was the oldest of four siblings and the father of two daughters.
He had long struggled with drugs and alcohol.
Mindle said investigators informed Bertrim’s family on Sunday they had uncovered his remains.
But Mindle added that as recently as April, when she last spoke to police, the probe into his vanishing appeared to be at a standstill.
“There was no inkling that they even suspected where he was or anything,” she said, adding:
“And where he was found is, like, baffling to us, because the people that lived there, their names don’t mean anything to us. They never have.
“It was like — who are they?”
The Friday Bertrim went missing, according to his mother, he told his roommate on the phone that he did not feel safe.
He was calling from a house on Church Street West and was afraid to leave the property.
It was the last place he was seen alive.
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