Prince George, B.C. – The search of Carp Lake for a Prince George man, missing and presumed drowned, has been called off without the recovery of the man’s body.

 

Mackenzie RCMP, Search and Rescue and the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team concluded their search yesterday on Carp Lake. The RCMP and Search and Rescue have been searching the lake since Sunday August 5th, when the 59 year old man jumped off his boat to retrieve his hat. Unfortunately he was not wearing a Personal Flotation Device and by the time his friends had turned the boat around, the man had disappeared.

 

The RCMP Underwater Recovery Team were called from Vancouver to search the lake with their boat and sonar equipment.  After facing a number of challenges which included equipment malfunction and severe weather conditions, the Team was able to enter the lake on Thursday. They searched the targeted area identified by witnesses who provided GPS Coordinates of where they believed their friend fell into the water. The target area was expanded by 200 meters in all directions however the search was unsuccessful.

 

Dive Team leader, Staff Sgt. Chis BERGERON assessed the vast lake and after the team attempted over a dozen descents in the 57,000,000 square meter lake, it was determined that without a more accurate "last point seen" and overall conditions, future attempts to recover the deceased would not be successful.

 

"Our team wanted to assist the family by searching for their husband and father so they could have closure", stated Staff Sgt. Chris BERGERON. "Unfortunately, after we assessed the conditions, environmental variables and technical limitations with our Sonar equipment, we were unable to continue the search. A recovery under these specific circumstances would be unsuccessful."

 

The Family of the missing man met with Mackenzie RCMP and the RCMP Dive Team to discuss the search efforts and thanked everyone who volunteered for their assistance in the search.