Search for missing boy continues in Crowsnest backcountry
A family camping trip took a terrible turn on Sunday when a child failed to return to the family’s campsite in a backcountry area south of the Island Lake Campground.
RCMP say six-year-old Darius Macdougall of Lethbridge was walking with six family members and became separated from the group.
The family called Crowsnest Pass RCMP at 11:33 a.m., after failing to locate the boy.
Darius has autism, which complicates the search as he may not respond to unfamiliar people or in expected ways.
Darius stands about four feet tall and has brown hair and eyes. He is wearing sweatpants and a blue and grey hoodie.
“We are still in the stage right now where we are very, very hopeful. There’s no talk on the ground of anything other than a positive outcome.”
Adam Kennedy, Alberta Search and Rescue
Teams are scouring the area day and night.
“Please know that every appropriate resource is being utilized to its fullest extent possible,” Sgt. Mark Amatto, detachment commander of Crowsnest Pass RCMP, said Monday.
Multiple agencies including RCMP, Southwest Alberta Regional Search and Rescue teams, Civil Air Search and Rescue and conservation officers are searching around the clock for the child. Thermal imaging drones, police dogs and helicopters are supporting ground searchers.
The rugged terrain, which ranges from flat ground to steeply angled cliffs to water bodies, is being thoroughly and methodically searched.
RCMP held a virtual press conference Tuesday to provide an update on the search operation.
“We are still in the stage right now where we are very, very hopeful,” said Adam Kennedy, provincial training officer with Alberta Search and Rescue.
“There’s no talk on the ground of anything other than a positive outcome.”
Drones, helicopters, searchers on OHVs and rescue dogs carried the sweep through Monday night, Darius’s second on his own.
Kennedy said RCMP also patrolled the road with their emergency lights on, “to try to set up a bit of an attractant for young Darius to pull him out of the woods, toward the road.”
The day started with 82 ground search-and-rescue personnel out at first light. A second helicopter is in the sky and teams with underwater and swift-water search capacity are on-site.
About 25 per cent of the distance a child with Darius’s profile might travel has been searched to a very, very high degree, Kennedy said. The perimeter is expanding out to the 90 per cent distance as he could now have wandered further.
Cpl. Gina Slaney, public information officer for the Alberta RCMP, confirmed that family members have been interviewed.
“We have child forensic interviewers that know how to appropriately interview children, all of those things are being done,” she said. “And you never know, that smallest tidbit of information from one of those family members might be able to assist us…. Nothing is too small.”
The investigation remains broad, but Slaney confirmed there is no indication of foul play at this time.
Slaney said the family are working on tasks at the scene and are being supported by victim services and other agencies.
The Salvation Army is providing food for search-and-rescue responders and a nearby Bible camp is providing a safe place for people to rest between shifts.
Offers to assist are pouring in, but officials ask that untrained personnel give the professional searchers space to do their work. The Tent Mountain Road is currently closed to the public.
Kennedy said trained searchers have a much higher probability of detection per person and that safety concerns exist due to the hazardous terrain.
“We don’t always know the capabilities of incoming volunteers and then there’s the potential that if they become injured, then we have to reroute some of our resources on the ground to support that incident as opposed to continuing the search,” he added.
Cpl. Slaney will look into ways community members can support the effort.
Shootin’ the Breeze will continue to post updates as information is received. It is hoped the next update includes news that Darius has been found safe.
Note: RCMP originally stated Darius to be five years old. Shootin’ the Breeze posts have been updated to reflect a correction to his age provided by RCMP on Sept. 25. The description of the area where Darius went missing has evolved during the search as well.
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