The young man found dead near Miles Canyon this week was a convicted cocaine trafficker who had been getting his life back on track, according to his family and parole documents.

Christopher Brisson, 25, was reported missing last Saturday. His body was found Tuesday afternoon. Whitehorse RCMP are treating it as suspicious.

Few other details have been provided by police or the coroner’s service.

At the time of his death, Brisson was serving a 45-month sentence for cocaine trafficking and weapon possession. In January, he had been granted statutory release from prison – mandated early release.

Brisson had to abide by several conditions: abstain from alcohol and drugs, not own more than one cell phone, provide financial information to his parole supervisor and avoid people he knew to be involved in criminal activity.

Had he breached these conditions, he could’ve been sent back to prison. That didn’t happen. Brisson’s sentence was set to end in April 2016.

“You appear to be dedicated to being a contributing member of society,” the Parole Board of Canada wrote in January.

Prior to his release, Brisson spent a year on day parole, living at the Yukon Adult Resource Centre (ARC). He did well during that time, according to parole documents.

Brisson abided by his conditions, worked part-time for his father’s painting company, participated in mental-health counselling and urine samples tested negative for drugs.

Staff at the ARC told the board he was quiet and respectful and that they had no concerns about his progress.

His tutor reported that despite his learning disability, Brisson was working hard to improve his reading and writing. He wanted another part-time job and was getting assistance with his resumé.

Brisson talked about his desire to be a positive role model for his young son, who now lives in B.C. with his mother.

When Brisson got a cell phone, he provided his parole officer with his bills and a list of phone activity as required. There was no indication of criminal activity, the documents say.

“Collateral contact with your father indicates that he is proud of you and he describes you as being a hard-working individual,” states an April 2014 parole board decision that continued his day parole.

“You seem to be doing well in the community.”

His older sister Stephanie said this was true.

Brisson was steadily employed, running his father’s business while caring for the ailing man. They’d go to movies together, or just hang out around the house. They talked on the phone three to four times a day, Stephanie said.

When Brisson was in court in 2013, his father pleaded with the judge for a lesser sentence.

“Chris was everything to him,” said Stephanie this morning, in tears on the phone from her home in Alberta.

“He’s been hanging in there with his own sickness, and I just don’t know if he’s got much more to hang onto for.”

It was Brisson’s father who reported him missing on Saturday.

Stephanie said Brisson had recently paid a damage deposit and first month’s rent at a trailer park in Porter Creek. He never came to pick up the keys.

Brisson moved to the Yukon with his father when he was 12, after his parents divorced.

He was arrested in February 2012 after police were tipped off about his dial-a-dope operation in Whitehorse.

In his car, police found 20 baggies, each containing a 1/2 gram of cocaine, $540 in cash, a knife and two ringing cell phones.

A search of two homes he’d been living in yielded 170 grams of cocaine, 10 grams of marijuana, $1,135 in cash, a loaded handgun and ammunition.

The estimated value of the cocaine was between $16,000 and $22,000, according to parole documents.

Brisson was released on bail, but arrested again a few months later when an undercover officer purchased drugs from one of his associates.

Again, his home and car were searched. Ninety-one grams of cocaine were found, plus a bulletproof vest, knife, hammer and $6,200 cash.

In January 2013, Brisson pleaded guilty to trafficking, possession of a restricted weapon and breaching his bail conditions.

According to his parole documents, Brisson started using cocaine after he and his girlfriend broke up. Then he started selling it to finance his habit.

He said he carried the weapons for his own safety.

“You again stated that you now realize the damage the drugs cause and how you will never return to that lifestyle in the future,” the documents say.

“He paid his dues,” said Stephanie’s husband, Doug. “I don’t frankly have much respect for anything within that world but as far as society goes, he paid his dues and he was on track to doing everything someone should be doing.”

Stephanie agrees.

“I truly believe that he was no longer involved in any of that stuff anymore,” she said. Her father also told her there was no indication he had slipped back into criminality.

Stephanie said her brother was a caring person, always there when she needed him. They chatted on the phone a few times since he was released in January.

“He’d always say he loved me at the end of the conversation.”

Whitehorse RCMP continue to investigate Brisson’s death.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts or activities in the last few weeks are asked to contact police at 667-5555.