A Burgeo woman died outside her house. Her body lay covered in a tarp for hours waiting for police

The body of a woman lay covered in a plastic tarp for hours just outside of her home in Burgeo, N.L., on Thursday.

The woman had apparently collapsed and died of natural causes, but because the nearest RCMP detachment is over two hours away in Stephenville, her family and friends had to leave her where they found her.

Burgeo Mayor Bill Bowles told CBC News he wasn't surprised by the news. There have been "several other" incidents within his community in which a person has died and the family had to wait upwards of three hours for the RCMP to arrive.

"It's not a good situation. I think there's better ways of doing it. I know the best way to take care of it is if we had police officers in Burgeo," he said. 

"At the moment we don't, and there's many other communities like us. It's a bad situation when you've got to have a body laying down and you're not able to move it or do anything until the police show up."

Bowles said it's an unfortunate process. 

He said he has spoken with police about having a doctor or other medical professional determine if a death is suspicious or not.

"I think that's the best way to go about it," he said. 

"This should not be. Medical professionals can determine whether a death is suspicious or natural."

Burgeo lost its RCMP officers shortly before the pandemic. 

Bowles said the police force is attempting to recruit more officers for his area but the staffing shortage across the country is slowing that process.

"We're constantly reaching out to our MP Gudie Hutchings and our member Andrew Parsons and, of course, the police," he said.

"We're constantly working and contacting those and just seeing what's done and just trying to keep it on the forefront rather than the back burner."

In a statement to CBC News on Thursday, the RCMP said its Bay St. George detachment received a report of a "sudden death" in Burgeo shortly after 10 a.m. NT.