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Body of young Hay River woman discovered near B.C. highway

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A young woman from Hay River was discovered deceased off the side of a British Columbia highway on July 22.

The deceased was identified by a family member as 27-year-old Brittany Martel.

Her body was found on the side of Highway 5, about 20 minutes south of Merritt.

According to a July 24 news release from the RCMP detachment in Merritt, the chance discovery occurred following a motor vehicle accident.

"The collision caused northbound traffic to be stopped for a period of time," stated the RCMP release. "While this occurred, a motorist exited his vehicle to stretch his legs only to discover a deceased woman off the side of Highway 5."

Since the discovery happened at night, a full scene examination was completed on July 23.

The police say that the scene examination showed "no overt signs" that criminality was involved with the death.

An autopsy is expected to be conducted to try and determine the cause of death.

Staff Sergeant Lorne Wood of the Merritt RCMP said the deceased woman was 27 years old and from the NWT.

However, the police would not identify the person by name because of the federal Privacy Act.

Wood said the death would be considered suspicious until proven otherwise.

"Just given the location and the circumstances around her discovery and with an abundance of caution, we're treating it as suspicious, but we don't have any indication of foul play or anything like that now," he told The Hub on July 27. "But we're still following through with the autopsy just to confirm those observations at the scene. I think it's a little preliminary on our part to say there's no foul play, but there's certainly nothing right now to indicate it."

Wood said the police are not sure how long the deceased person was off the side of the road before being discovered.

The officer said the woman had resided in Kelowna, and occasionally travelled between there and her hometown in the North.

Martel was the subject of a missing person's report in June.

At that time, the RCMP believed she was hitchhiking to Hay River, where she arrived on July 3.

The Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network (APTN) reported it had reached out to Martel via Facebook in July to talk about the cancellation of Greyhound bus routes in Western Canada.

APTN reported Martel had responded in a July 11 voicemail that she would be interested in talking about her hitchhiking experiences.