Police rule Lake Loon death a homicide

Josiah Kaelin Sparks was murdered.

The 22-year-old was found dead just after 8 p.m. on Thursday near a home on Cherry Brook Road in Lake Loon.

On Saturday morning, Cpl. Andrew Joyce of the RCMP confirmed that police have declared the death to be a homicide but was not releasing any further details.

Meanwhile, the community is in shock.

Marcell Slawter had just driven home from Ottawa to visit his mother when he saw police and an ambulance outside the home on Thursday.

Outside family members of the deceased were crying.

“It’s tragic to see a young man’s life taken away,” Slawter told The Chronicle Herald on Friday.

“Doesn’t matter the circumstances, it’s a tragic loss of life.”

Johnathan MacIntosh just moved to Cherry Brook Road a month ago.

On Thursday he was having a bonfire when police arrived at his neighbour’s house.

“The people who live in that family were devastated , we could hear them crying,”said MacIntosh on Friday.

“The grandfather who lived there was bedridden, we thought he had passed away.”

MacIntosh said though he had heard a quiet bang on Thursday evening, he does not believe it was a gunshot.

“That’s all I know,” he said.