Search team concludes mission to find missing New Denver area males Tuesday 'without success'
By Nelson Daily Staff
RCMP Sgt. Darryl Little said the search for three males from the New Denver area missing after a canoeing accident Saturday afternoon on Slocan Lake ended Tuesday evening “without success”.
Hayden Kyle, 21, Skye Donnet, 18, and Jule Wiltshire-Padfield, 15, were canoeing from New Denver to Rosebery along with 19-year-old Lily Harmer-Taylor, when the accident happened on the water.
A male who was walking along a trail near the beach spotted the partially submerged canoe, with one person holding onto each end. The male ran to a nearby home and called police.
Harmer-Taylor was only member of the canoeing party found, but later died in hospital.
Little said the RCMP dive team conducted another search of the Bigelow Bay area Tuesday using underwater sonar in an effort to find the three missing youths.
Dive teams plan to be back on the water Wednesday, but Little said the search crew is exploring other options to scan the deep, glacier-fed waters of Slocan Lake and bring this event to a conclusion.
“Emergency Management BC has been contacted and agreed to provide additional equipment that can search at a deeper depth, as the lake is well over 400 feet deep where the canoe overturned,” Little said.
“This equipment includes both side scan radar and an underwater remote vehicle.”
“There are estimations that the depths reach 600-700 feet within the search area making the recovery more difficult,” Little added.
The operators of the scan radar and an underwater remote vehicle are expected to arrive Thursday.
