Man’s body found with ‘obvious signs of trauma’ after ‘suspicious fire’ near Edmonton Exhibition Lands: police

The Edmonton Police Service’s arson unit and homicide unit has been called in to investigate after a body was found at an apartment building in the area of 117 Avenue and 80 Street on Wednesday.

Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said the man’s body had “obvious signs of trauma” and the fire was being treated as suspicious.

Officers were driving past the apartment building at about 3:30 p.m. when they saw smoke and called Edmonton Fire Rescue Services to the scene. Police said officers alerted tenants to the blaze before firefighters arrived.

“We want to talk to anybody who’s been at this address — especially in the last 24 hours — anybody who hangs around this area,” Clark said. “We do want to talk to anybody who saw anything, may have seen anything overnight, all the way to the time of the fire this afternoon.”

Clark said the body was found in a suite on the second floor of the three-storey building. He added that “there’s been some issues here,” while speaking about what police know of the building.

-With files from Global News’ Kim Smith