Police say Samuel Bird investigation was conducted out of public view, at cost of criticism

It was 4 a.m. on Thursday morning, under a waning crescent moon, when police found the remains of 14-year-old Samuel Bird within a stand of trees off a farmer’s field, west of Edmonton.

“It’s a moment I’ll remember forever,” the case’s lead investigator, Homicide Detective Jared Buhler, told reporters, describing the scene in detail at a news conference on Friday afternoon. He noted that Samuel’s spiritual name is Little Boy on the Moon.