An RCMP dive team is searching the waters off Nanaimo Saturday in connection to a homicide investigation.
Police say they are searching the waters off of Neck Point Park and Piper’s Lagoon in relation to 35-year-old man Sidney Mantee, who was reported missing by his family from Saskatchewan last fall.
Police believe Mantee is a victim of homicide.
Nanaimo RCMP said searches done in May of Diver’s Lake Park and the apartment Mantee had been living in are connected to the case.
A former neighbour feels for his family and friends.
“To have somebody missing and not know where the body is has got to be just gut wrenching and they need reconciliation and conclusion to what’s happened,” said James Lowe.
Seven weeks later, at Mantee’s last apartment, the railing police pulled off during the exhaustive search hasn’t been put back in place and the suite is now bare with even pieces of drywall missing from a wall and the ceiling.
“We heard them cutting out the walls and they shut off the plumbing, took out the plumbing, the tubs everything,” said Lowe.
Six divers were in the water during the Saturday and Sunday searches while they were supported by officers in two boats.
READ MORE: Missing person believed to be victim of foul play as Nanaimo RCMP search lake, apartment building
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