The search for Carlos Tomás Aranda Burgoin has ended. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have confirmed that the body found last Tuesday matches that of the 30-year-old Mexican man, missing in the province of British Columbia since July 7, the date he was last seen. Canadian authorities announced they would continue the autopsy “to determine how, when and by what means he died,” a statement said.

“We offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Aranda Burgoin,” we can read in a brief press release from the Mounted Gendarmerie. The discovery of the body on the shore of Osoyoos Lake, on the border between the United States and Canada, brought clarity to an investigation that lasted more than a month and a half. The body wore clothing similar to that worn by the Mexican citizen, whose trace was lost after he arrived a month earlier to work in Canada.

Identification was difficult because the body was in an advanced degree of decomposition. “The forensic doctor will carry out the corresponding tests using DNA samples to confirm whether it is indeed Carlos Tomás,” commented the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the discovery in a joint statement with the family of the young man.

The disappearance file was released on July 10, after the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted police in Osoyoos, a small community of 5,000 residents, about 400 kilometers from Vancouver. The Mexican consul in this city, Berenice Díaz, insisted that the authorities begin the search operation for the citizen originally from the state of Oaxaca. A yellow Interpol wanted card was also issued with his distinctive features: brown hair, 1.75 meters tall, and moles on his neck, chin and forehead. “His family is desperate and looking for him,” Díaz said in a video posted two weeks ago.

Faced with the lack of answers about his fate, a group of relatives of Aranda Burgoin demonstrated in early August in front of the National Palace, seat of the Mexican government, to demand that Andrés Manuel López Obrador demand progress from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “He has been missing for a month now and I don’t have a written report from the police,” said Octavio Aranda, his father, criticizing the actions of authorities in both countries. After the protest, the family held meetings with Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena and Canadian Ambassador Graeme C. Clark to speed up search efforts and gain more certainty about what happened.

The disappearance of Aranda Burgoin coincided with the case of student María Fernanda Sánchez in Germany, found in early August after two weeks of disappearance. “Committed to permanent surveillance to find Carlos Tomás in Canada,” Bárcena said this week and assured that he had informed the family of the progress of the investigations last Monday. The Mexican authorities indicated that they would support the young man’s family in the consular and police procedures as well as in his repatriation.

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