It may at long last be a sad mystery solved, but how very tragic it is. A few days ago at La Peche, Quebec, a man walking his dog found that his canine companion had scrubbed about and dug up some bones. Later rests confirmed them to be human remains. And now police are fairly certain they must be the remains of a former Carleton University professor, who at age 77 had become a missing person.

He had last been seen by a neighbour in the small rural community, walking his dog up Hogan Road. This was on a September afternoon in 2007. The dog returned home, George Roseme did not. And a day later a neighbour reported him to be missing. A former political science professor at the university and once a star javelinist who almost made the 1950 Olympic team in the United States, it was known by those near him that he had been diagnosed in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Although originally from California, he had settled down in rural Quebec after his retirement. His daughters had remained in California. Roseme family members came to Quebec with the concern that authorities would not thoroughly search for their missing senior family member. It is a landscape of forested hills and heavy brush, and endless trails weaving through the beautiful area where the National Capital Commission's Gatineau Park neighbours.

A sublimely lovely natural landscape where when our children were in their growing and teen years we would spend endless hours, hiking and canoeing, and berry-picking.

But a concerned and concentrated search had indeed taken place. One that went on for ten days by land, air and with the use of tracer dogs. Helicopter and search-and-rescue teams were unable to turn up any sign of his whereabouts. A death certificate was never issued. In Quebec civil law a coroner may issue a death certificate in the absence of a body only after a missing person has been absent for over seven years.

Details of precisely where the bones were discovered, how close they were to George Roseme's house have not been released. And although there is certainty in the minds of police and neighbours that the uncovered bones are indeed those of George Roseme, forensic tests are yet to take place. And it is hoped that the tests will reveal the cause of death.