WATCH: A man in his late 40s was headed to his cabin on Alice Lake by boat but never made it. Dean Stoltz reports.
UPDATE: Campbell River Search and Rescue say the search was suspended indefinitely late Wednesday.
Wednesday was day three in the search for a missing Port Hardy man who on Saturday put his boat in the water at a boat ramp on the Marble River. He intended to go to his cabin on Alice Lake but instead, he got swept down the Marble River.
Swift water search and rescue teams from Campbell River and the Comox Valley were joined Wednesday by an RCMP dive team, as the search for the missing man intensified.
“We speculate that he got into some kind of difficulty likely with the motor and with the current of the Marble River running out of Alice Lake here. It appears they may have been swept into the falls,” said Campbell River Search and Rescue’s Daryl Beck. “The boat is located upside down about halfway down Marble Falls.”
Damage to the boat indicates it may have hit a large rock in the river before capsizing.
Remarkably, the man’s two dogs survived. One was picked up on a nearby highway over the weekend when someone thought it was a stray.
The second dog was found Monday by searchers on an island in the river, just down from where the boat was found.
The man was reported missing by coworkers Monday when he didn’t show up for work. They flew to his cabin in a seaplane looking for him.
“And by flying over the falls here they noticed the bottom of an overturned boat,” said Beck.
Since then, all seven kilometres of the river to the ocean where it empties has been searched without any sign of the man.
“An RCMP helicopter, as well as a private helicopter, searched the river and yesterday afternoon the RCMP used one of their UAVs [drone] and flew the area as well,” said Scott Larsen of the Comox Valley RCMP.
Dean Stoltz
