Jason Belle, a 17 year-old Calgary teen, was found dead floating in the Elbow River  Saturday morning. His bloated body indicates that he had been in the river nearly all night, though autopsies have shown there were no signs of a fight. Police still aren’t convinced he jumped in willingly due to the numerous faded bruises dotted al over his body.

Belle was a good kid, had good grades, and was a good student. He may not come from the happiest family, or live in the safest neighbourhood, but nobody would think anyone could have a big enough problem with him to kill him. He always seemed to avoid trouble, and therefore trouble stayed away from him too, or so it seemed.

Belle was found by 23 year-old Macy Simmons on her daily morning walk. “It was horrifying , he was all swollen and bloated. It was definitely not how I wanted to start my morning.” Simmons tells us. The owner of the nearby cafe, Sarah Jennings, confessed to having seen Belle at the bridge with another man the night of his death from the window of her cafe. “I didn’t think anything of it, it was late and all kinds of people wander around at that time. I think around 11:00pm. I couldn’t really see their faces, but one was slightly taller than the other, and little but more muscly I think.” says Jennings, “I remember turning away for a moment, and when I looked back, one was gone while the taller guy was walking away. It was so late, I didn’t even think about the fact that something could’ve been wrong”

Jennings has described the mysterious individual as tall, around 6′, wearing a dark sweater and jeans.

Police have next to no leads on the killer due to the lack of witnesses and surveillance, but they do find it odd the parents of the teen still haven’t commented on the situation at all. No missing persons reports or worried calls, nothing. Neighbours of the victim have told us of the loud shouting and fighting that could occasionally be heard from his house. On more than one occasion they saw Belle running off with his step-father yelling after him. No one found it strange or out of the ordinary to witness a bit of family trouble, and they never saw anything get physical, so they kept to themselves and eventually forgot about it.

Belle’s father passed away when he was only a child. For most of his life it was just Jason and his mother. Only last year did the youth’s mother, Mae Belle, remarry to 47 year-old, Matt Corbel.They seemed like a normal family, or at least as normal as they could be. Step-father issues, a troubled teen, and a doting mother who wants the fighting to stop but never does anything about him. Completely normal for their rough neighbourhood, but could it have been something more than just a teenager who couldn’t accept his new dad?

A quiet kid from a sketchy neighbourhood no one knows a whole lot about, what secrets could he have been hiding? What was really going on behind the walls of his home? And most importantly, what really happened to Jason Belle on that cold Friday night?