UCLUELET—Police are investigating the deaths of Dan Archbald and Ryan Daley as homicides, according to a statement released Friday morning by the RCMP.

The statement comes a day after family members told StarMetro police had confirmed that the human remains of two people found recently near Ucluelet are those of the Squamish men who went missing last month.

“Identifying Mr. Daley and Mr. Archbald is a significant step in this investigation. We can now focus our attention on answering the who, what, when, where and why, in an effort to determine who is responsible for their deaths,” RCMP Insp. Dave Hall said in the Friday staement.

Prior to learning the identity of the remains, family members close to the case said they were growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication from the RCMP as the days ticked by. The absence of basic information fuelled the gossip mills about their missing loved ones and only compounded their anguish, they told StarMetro.

Over the course of the past week, StarMetro has made a number of attempts to speak to the RCMP. Repeated phone calls and emails were not returned.

Sally Daley, Ryan’s mother, told StarMetro her son was “a remarkable and unique man with a huge heart, and he will be dearly missed.”

Lindsey Youell, Daley’s sister-in-law, said her family is “devastated” by the news.

“Anyone with information that could help the investigation, please come forward,” Youell said.

Daley and Archbald vanished May 16. They were last seen leaving the Ucluelet small craft harbour, having sailed the 48-foot Astral Blue from Panama.

On June 6, after an exhaustive ground search — involving police, search-and-rescue personnel and family members — failed to find any trace of the pair, RCMP labelled the disappearance suspicious and assigned the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crimes Unit to the case.

On June 18, police announced that two bodies had been discovered near Ucluelet by a woman walking her dog.

Meanwhile, the family of Ben Kilmer — who went missing the same day— is still searching for answers. Kilmer’s van was on Cowichan Lake Rd. with its engine running and blood inside.

Kilmer is considered a missing person and police have not labelled his disappearance suspicious. Friday’s statement from the RCMP said there is no evidence the cases are connected.

“We are deeply saddened to learn that Dan Archbald and Ryan Daley have been found deceased,” Kilmer’s family said in an emailed statement Thursday night. “With heavy hearts, we offer our sincere condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of Dan and Ryan.”

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“At this point in time, there is no evidence linking the cases of Dan and Ryan with Ben’s disappearance. However, we empathize with these two families who have endured the shared agony of losing their loved ones on the same day that Ben went missing.”

As with Archbald and Daley, friends and family of Kilmer staged more than a month of gruelling ground searches and a postering campaign trying to find him, with no result.

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