Good morning.

On Thursday afternoon, at a rural intersection west of Edmonton, homicide detective Jared Buhler told reporters that investigators had narrowed their search area for the remains of 14-year-old Samuel Bird, who is missing and presumed dead.

“Literally, it’s like doing a puzzle,” the Edmonton Police Service detective told reporters gathered about 160 kilometres outside the city.

Samuel has been missing for more than four months. And his family has been searching since the beginning.

On the evening of June 1, Samuel stopped at his mother Alanna Bird’s apartment in west Edmonton with a friend, on his way to his ex-girlfriend’s place.

“I love you, Mom,” he said as he left.

That was the last time his mother saw him alive.

The case has been the subject of significant attention in Edmonton over the last several months, with intensive searches in and around the city by the teen’s family, the community and a legion of volunteers.

While there were questions in the early days about what police were doing to find the missing Indigenous teen, at a press conference last week, Det. Buhler said Samuel’s disappearance had been the subject of a homicide investigation since shortly after he was reported missing on June 6.

The Globe’s Jana Pruden has been following the story, and spent significant time with the family and supporters as they searched in Edmonton, pleaded with the public for answers on social media and plastered Samuel’s photo on posters around the city.

Bird said how she thought maybe Samuel had just stayed out with friends. But as days turned to weeks, those thoughts passed.

She also described the cruel replies and grainy videos she was sent over social media, taunting her about her son’s disappearance.

“Samuel’s dead.”

“Samuel’s sleeping with the fishes,” they wrote.

Later, she was sent screen grabs appearing to show her son’s murder.

One video from an anonymous sender showed someone who looked like Samuel tied up and being beaten. Another showed a young male duct-taped to a chair while a person forced alcohol into his mouth.

Bird saw them all, then sent them to police.

One person messaged her through Facebook, claiming they’d kidnapped Samuel and were holding him for a $30,000 ransom.

“They kept messaging me, kind of harassing me, and it gets to you. Because you’re like, what if? What if he was taken? What if he’s kidnapped right now?” Bird said.

Det. Buhler said at a press conference last week that significant time and resources were wasted trying to investigate these nasty videos and messages, which have been of little or no value.

“Unfortunately, there are troubled individuals out there who take some sort of perverse joy in trying to take credit to build up their own street credibility or online credibility by claiming knowledge or responsibility of this,” he said.

On Thursday, Det. Buhler said new information had narrowed the search area to a more specific spot around Carrot Creek, along the Yellowhead Highway.

Police cautioned the public however that even with trained searchers and cadaver dogs moving through the wooded area and agricultural land, they might not find Samuel.

“It’s a massive area and we’ll do our best, but you know, there’s no guarantees that we’re going to find Samuel here, unfortunately,” he said. But investigators and the family are committed to working together to bring home his remains, “whether it’s today, tomorrow, this week or next spring.”

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.