Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 01/98) - A four-year investigation has failed to determine why a 34-year-old Con miner died in December of 1994.

Last week the NWT coroner's office released an investigator's ruling that evidence gathered at the scene was insufficient to provide a cause of death for Brian Bradley Bodnariuk.

"Unfortunately, after exhaustive scene investigation, testing, examination of the exhibits, interviews of Miramar Con Mine's employees, family and friends of the deceased, the investigators were not able to determine if this was a deliberate or accidental explosion," said coroner Larry Campbell in his report dated May 2.

"The information made available ... suggests that while Mr. Bodnariuk did have some difficulties and stressors in his life, there was no indication of depression or suicidal (tendencies) either verbally or written," said the report.

"The singular difficulty in this incident is that there are no witnesses of the events immediately prior to the explosion."

On Dec. 12, 1994, just before 3:10 p.m., the suspected time of the death, Bodnariuk was having coffee with his crew but left as they waited for a cage to take them to the surface.

Crews saw him put his coat on, mutter something to himself and walk away towards two electric powered mine locomotives. He then began to drive the locomotive down a drift tunnel. He stopped at a large vent door to access the drift, passed through and closed the vent behind him.

Investigators concluded he had probably left behind some personal effects and was returning to get them. Approximately five or 10 minutes later, the miners heard an explosion. Several miners checked out the noise and found human remains in an area known as a day bench or storage area. The locomotive was totally destroyed.

"The only internal organ recovered was a portion of the liver, which showed no evidence of natural disease processes," said Campbell.

Explosive material was sitting approximately half a metre above ground on wooden rail ties. Bodnariuk is believed to have been in the open locomotive, which was stopped about two metres above the stored explosives at the time of the detonation.

More than 50 kilograms of explosives were thought to be at the day bench storage facility prior to the explosion.