Condolences poured in to a Facebook website on Tuesday for the family and friends of Brittney Irving, a 24-year-old bright-eyed Kelowna woman who had been missing since April 6.
Kelowna RCMP said in a terse statement Irving’s body had been located and they were undertaking a homicide investigation.
“It is so sad,” Jodie Ricard-Lang wrote in a message to Irving’s brother, mother and father.
“It just seems like yesterday that she was a bright, little baby girl. She obviously will be missed by many friends and family members.”
“Britt, you were a wonderful person and so much fun to be around,” wrote a grieving Chelsea Frank.
“You will be missed. I think of you often and it was hurting so bad to not know what happened, and now the worst outcome of all.”
Kelowna RCMP Const. Steve Holmes asked the media to respect Irving’s family’s privacy as it mourns their loss, but he provided no details surrounding her death.
Irving was last seen at a Kelowna motel on April 6 by a family member. Her blue Ford Explorer was found the next day about 15 kilometres east of Kelowna, where Philpott Road intersects with Highway 33.
A week later, her brother Joze MacCullouch gave an interview to a CHBC-TV reporter, in which he said Brittney was looking forward to going into rehab to deal with her addiction to painkillers after doing a big drug deal.
He said the deal — involving 36 kilograms of marijuana — was going to be Irving’s last.
“She was going to make a little bit of money, and she had all the intention off getting off those OxyContins,” said MacCullouch.
“She was so excited to be going into rehab, she was a happy, happy girl.”
On Mother’s Day, Irving’s mother, Sandra MacCullouch, made a desperate plea to the public for information about Brittney.
“I’d like to have her home and give her a great big hug,” she told CHBC. “But I have a feeling that’s not going to happen.”
She suspected robbery may have been the motive for Brittney’s disappearance.
“She had money on her, and people are cruel,” said Sandra.
“She’s just a pea in a pod out there for drug dealers or whatever. She means nothing to them.”
Speculation swirled that Irving may have been dealing with a member of the notorious Independent Soldiers gang, which is heavily involved in the drug trade throughout B.C.
Irving had been living in a house in the 300-block of Braeloch Road, where police raided a large marijuana grow-op shortly before her disappearance, according to a report on the Kelowna-based website Castanet.org.
The RCMP would not confirm any of the reports.
“No charges have been laid with respect to Brittney’s death and no other details of the investigation will be released at this time,” said Const. Holmes.
Anyone with information that might help the police solve Irving’s death is asked to call West Kelowna RCMP at 250-768-2880 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
