Mounties uncover truth about the legend of a buried officer [Video]

Legend has it that on a dark evening in 1988, friends of Supt. Joe Atherton quietly buried his body on the site of the old provincial RCMP headquarters in Vancouver.

The act was not malicious. Instead, they knew that Supt. Atherton had no children, that he considered the Mounties his family, and that he loved the grounds known as Fairmont Barracks.

For decades, the tale of a fellow member being buried by a flagpole was shared at parties and over pints of beer, but nobody really knew whether it was true.

The RCMP has since vacated the property on the corner of 33rd Avenue and Heather Street, and it’s now slated to be dug-up and developed.

“I believe that when his friends buried him there, that it never occurred to them that time marches on and that that building would not always be our home,” said Insp. Veronica Fox.

To …