WATCH: Dozens of searchers are on the trail near Nanaimo looking for a woman missing for four days. Seventy-three-year-old Faye Hanson was last seen Sunday around noon when she set off to go mushroom picking. As Skye Ryan reports, searchers are not giving up.
Hope is not lost during day four of the search for missing 73-year-old Faye Hanson.
Search and rescue teams from across the province, as well as RCMP K9 units, and drones, are searching the massive sprawling backcountry west of the Nanaimo airport where the senior went mushroom picking Sunday. This big push is putting the best backcountry trackers, with two and four legs, on the trail of a woman who is missed by so many.
READ MORE: Search continues for missing mushroom picker near Nanaimo
Mario Gauvin, with Ladysmith Search and Rescue, said there is still hope of locating Hanson.
“We cross our fingers and hope for the best she still has a good chance of surviving,” Gauvin said.
There’s reason to keep hoping. In August 2016, 67-year-old Irene Paquet was found after being lost for five days in the rugged wilderness of Copper Canyon behind Chemainus.
At the time of her rescue, Paquet’s daughter, Carrie, was amazed by her mother’s survival skills.
“I mean I’m amazed by her strength. I don’t know what she was doing out there for six days,” Paquet said. “I don’t know how she managed to keep herself going for six days.”
In May 2014, 65-year-old Jamie Sproule was found after surviving five days in the woods of Cumberland. His wife, Gwynne Sproule, said it was difficult to believe her husband walked out of the bush.
“This is like a dream because it’s just so hard to believe. We’re just stunned. We’re still reeling,” Sproule said.
Many of the searchers here were on both of those so-called miracle searches including RCMP Const. Marcel Slofstra. He was one of the first on the scene when Sproule was found. “I was there for that and it was a bit of a surprise but we had a good outcome on that case,” Slofstra said.
So searchers are vowing to keep looking until their efforts are called off.
Faye Hanson was last seen at approximately 12 p.m. on Oct. 22 driving a blue 2014 Silverado. Hanson’s vehicle was found at 10:30 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Timberlands Road and Ninatti Road. Anyone who sees Hanson is asked to call 911 immediately.
Mary Griffin
