It’s day four of the search for five-year-old Darius Macdougall who went missing while on a camping trip with his family near Crowsnest Pass, and still there is no sign of the missing Lethbridge, Alta., boy.
During their daily update on Wednesday, RCMP and search experts provided more details on both the search and how the little boy went missing.
The RCMP says the search for 5-year-old Darius Macdougall is made more challenging because he is autistic.
Courtesy: RCMP
Adam Kennedy, provincial training manager with Search and Rescue Alberta, said the boy was out walking with other family members on Sunday, within a kilometre of their campsite, at Island Lake Campground in soutwestern Alberta, located about 250 km south of Calgary.
“Darius was with six family members, but it’s my understanding they were all young. There were no adults in the group,” said RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney, noting she couldn’t provide their exact ages.
When the group returned to the family’s campsite, Darius was not with them.
“Our general investigation section is currently on scene and they are doing very detailed interviews with everybody. So hopefully we’ll have a little better of an understanding in the hours to come,” added Slaney.
However, the RCMP have insisted there is no indication that foul play was involved in the boy’s disappearance.
Adam Kennedy, provincial training manager with Search and Rescue Alberta, says there are about 100 people now involved in the search for 5-year-old Darius Macdougall.
Source: Zoom interview
There are now approximately 100 people involved in the search, including multiple search and rescue agencies from both Alberta and British Columbia, conservation officers, fish and wildlife officers, Alberta sheriffs and members of Canada Task Force 2, with other agencies like the Salvation Army on the ground providing support.
Kennedy said the Canadian Armed Forces have also been contacted to determine if they have any assets that might benefit search efforts.
The search crews have been concentrating on an area three km in each direction from the campground, but that’s gradually being expanded to 6.6 km.
The area where the 5-year-old boy went missing is described by searchers as a combination of thick forests and steep alpine areas with multiple waterways, requiring crews to work shoulder to shoulder to cover the area.
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The area has been described as a combination of thick forests, steep alpine terrain and open areas with multiple creeks and river, including some beaver dams and bogs, forcing searchers to work almost shoulder to shoulder to cover the area effectively.
“Overnight, search teams continued ground searches supported by one RCMP helicopter and two search and rescue dogs from the Canadian Search Dog Association,” said Kennedy.
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“Today there 68 searchers from a combination of Alberta and BC teams working alongside two RCMP dog teams, one helicopter, and multiple drones.”
Concerns were raised when one searcher discovered what they thought may be blood, but Slaney said the RCMP forensic identification team was called in, the sample was analyzed and confirmed not to be blood, human or animal, a development she called “very relieving and positive.”
Swift water and underwater rescue teams have also searched all the water bodies in the area, some of them up to three times, said Kennedy.
There are also also searchers available on horseback if required, added Kennedy, but so far, because of the terrain involved, “horseback is not seen to be a useful asset.”
The search for the little boy has been made more challenging because he is autistic.
Slaney confirmed he is able to verbally communicate, but “there are concerns he might not interact well with people calling out his name. If he hears the research and rescue personnel calling his name, he might not answer.”
Despite offers from the public to help look for the little boy, searchers insist the job is best left to the professionals, to prevent inexperienced searchers from inadvertently destroying possible evidence or getting into trouble themselves and needing to be rescued.
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While Slaney said searchers are “gratefully appreciative” of the many offers from from the public to join the search, both she and Kennedy insisted it is best left to the professionals.
“One is the safety of both of our searchers and of the public when they’re out in the rough terrain that we’re dealing with here,” said Kennedy.
“The other consideration is members of the public coming in and destroying clues that may have been picked up by a search and rescue team.”
“Members of the public that aren’t trained in that clue awareness may trample some of those clues that otherwise search teams could have picked up that could direct us in an area and kind of focus that search,” added Kennedy.
However, Slaney said the RCMP are working with members of the local community to set up a location where the public can drop off non perishable supplies, like water or sports drinks, that can in turn, be provided to the search crews.
While the overnight temperature has dipped to as low as 4 C, last night it only dropped to 11 C and is forecast to be about the same for the next few days, which Kennedy calls “much more favourable.”
Despite no sign of the little boy so far, the searchers insist they are not giving up hope.
“Based on consultation with a couple leading Alberta physicians on wilderness medicine, we are still working on the assumption that Darius is very much alive and everyone is working on a tempo to reflect that,” said Kennedy. “We very much still believe him to be alive.”
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