I thought it was a "mannequin"... Canadian police dump a woman's body in a trash can

Police and fire officials in Canada have publicly apologized for the mishandling of human remains after the charred body of a woman was mixed with a mannequin doll and dumped into a police trash can.

On the morning of July 23, authorities responded to reports of a small fire behind a factory in Sherbrooke, Quebec, just over 30 miles north of Vermont.

Sherbrooke Police Chief Daniel McConnell said: "When officers arrived at the scene, an eyewitness reported that someone had set a silicone mannequin on fire.

He added, after consultations between the police and fire departments, it was agreed to dispose of the mannequin in the container of the police station, which cannot be used by the public.

But hours after the burnt body was disposed of, a resident reported a missing person.

The surprise was when the investigators traced the victim's phone to the location of the burned body, which prompted the officers to link the location and the mannequin incident, quickly to the fact that they made a mistake by throwing the body in the landfill.

Explaining the confusion between the corpse and the puppet, anatomist Robert Nicholson told CBS that the body loses its water weight when cremated and does not look like a human corpse.

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