*** SAR Teams Recover Drowned Suicide Victim ***

From:	Richard Laing [Richard_Laing@bc.sympatico.ca]
Sent:	Monday, November 30, 1998 11:10 PM
To:	Martin Colwell sarinfo@istar.ca


Ridge Meadows SAR was contacted by the R.C.M.P. at 21:30 hours on Thursday
November 26th '98 to search for a despondent 65 year old female. The subject had left her residence at approximately 10:00 am that morning. Her car was
located that evening in Maple Ridge Park and a note was found inside indicating her depression.

Maple Ridge Park is a small municipal park with playing fields, campsites, a
small trail system, some low ground cover and the south Alouette River
running along it's southern boundary. R.C.M.P. Dog handler Cst. Rick Chaulk
and "Jake" had searched the area but had found nothing.

Teams were immediately dispatched to search the banks of the river as well as
re-searching the trail system. Three bridge crossings were also searched
using high powered lighting. As additional members arrived, horse trails
that fed into the park were searched, as was the campground and surrounding
area. The Alouette River feeds directly in to the Pitt River, so Ridge Two
(our 19 foot rescue boat) was put in the water and searched as far up the
Alouette as was possible. With no clues or new information uncovered, the
search was suspended at 04:00 to allow the searchers a brief rest and the
SAR Manager's to plan the next operational period.

High water levels and swift moving current were a concern for the safety of the SAR members and the effectiveness of the search. The R.C.M.P. helicopter was requested for a search of the river but the request was denied. BC Hydro was contacted and the possibility of partially closing the dam at Alouette Lake was discussed. Due to the impending weather, they were reluctant to do so. If the weather were to deteriorate and the rains were to increase, they could have a situation where the water in the lake would exceed the top of the dam and they would then have uncontrolled free spillage over the dam causing flash flooding of the river. This idea was put on hold.

Coquitlam SAR was paged and they were able to respond with four members. We re-searched several areas in the daylight that had been covered the previous night. Maple Ridge Fire Department lent us their 3 meter inflatable Zodiac. We put two swiftwater rescue trained members in the Zodiac and they searched the river downstream from the park to a logjam on the river approximately 3km below the park. Nothing was seen.

At this point, the search had covered all likely areas with no indication of the missing subject. However, a witness placed the subject at the riverbank shortly after she had left her home. The likelihood of the subject being in the water increased but there was still some chance that she had left the area by bus (although this was still unlikely due to the contents of the note and the location of her car).

At approximately 14:30, on their second run down the river, the Zodiac team
spotted something in the river - under approximately 1 meter of fast water
that seemed out of the ordinary. Upon closer investigation, it was confirmed
to be a body, trapped by a log. An R.C.M.P. Dive Team member arrived and
with assistance of the Zodiac team was able to recover her body and turn it
over to the coroner. The body was positively identified to be that of the
missing subject.