‘We were ecstatic,’ PG Search & Rescue on finding missing boy

“All day Thursday and Thursday night. On Friday the team picked up some tracks and we started following them through the bush through the snow. So, we basically at that point started closing the net – surrounded the area with teams – closing in on the area so that if he was in there, and we had a good feeling he was, that we were going to find him, and luckily we did,” says Merritt.

He tells CKPG Today that the search was a difficult one.

“In this area of the province we’re not quite spring, we’re not quite winter, so our search team in a matter of 200 metres went from walking on the ground in thigh deep snow to very steep terrain. There was a couple of spots where we needed a rope team for access because it was so steep,” says Merritt.

“So, we had a little bit of everything on this thing – we had frozen creeks, frozen lakes, frozen ponds. So, we had to keep our searchers safe in those areas and bringing in our specialty teams when we needed them. With help from the RCMP, we were able to search those areas from the air.”

He credits the success of the search to a lot of things, especially teamwork.

“We had SAR teams from 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Prince George, Fort St. James, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof and Houston. We also had the RCMP, community members who provided us food. We put in 500 hours for PG SAR alone.”

Merritt says after two nights out in the cold, concern was starting to ramp up as a third night out approached.

“But we also know that younger people have a tendency to survive better than adults because we overthink things a lot.”

When found, RCMP say Luke was cold, hungry, and had a few scrapes and bumps but was otherwise okay.

by Greg Fry

‘We were ecstatic,’ PG Search & Rescue on finding missing boy

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