A remote Inuit community is in shock as police try to determine who dug up two graves and tampered with the coffins earlier this summer.
"It's a bad crime when you got that kind of thing going on," said Staff Sergeant Steve Wright from Iqaluit. "People really get offended by it."
Police say the desecrations happened on June 5 and 6 in Baker Lake, Nunavut, in the central Arctic.
Local media, quoting an RCMP officer, say that DNA samples from the remains have been sent to a crime lab to determine what types of body fluids were present.
RCMP are no longer making any comment on the nature of the grave desecration.
But Baker Lake RCMP Corporal Justin Dickens confirmed the coffins were opened.
"The coffin was opened and things were moved around in the coffin," he said.
Baker Lake mayor David Aksawnee said people are appalled.
"It's very, very upsetting for the whole community," he said.
Relatives of the deceased have offered a $10,000 reward for any information on the crime.
Sgt. Wright said officers from the major crimes unit in Iqaluit are now assisting the three-member local detachment. He said the officers are now following up a series of tips.
"When the reward was offered, a ton of calls came in," said Cpl. Dickens. "We took each piece of information seriously, but nothing has turned up right now."
The community's cemetery is operated by the municipality. The crimes would have taken place in the near-24-hour daylight of the Arctic summer.
Baker Lake is a community of about 1,800 on the north shore of its namesake lake. Unlike many Inuit communities, it has a long history of settlement.
While it has long been one of the poorest Inuit communities, mineral development in the region has recently provided a major economic boost.
Quebec-based Agnico-Eagle Mines has opened a nearby gold mine. As well, French uranium giant Areva Resources has applied to build a uranium mine in the area.
Sgt. Wright said police are just as revolted by the crime as the community.
"To the police this a shocking thing," he said. "When we're put into our final place of rest, that's what we want to do."