*** Multi-Day Search for Missing Grandmother ***

From:	Martin Colwell
	sar_admin@mindlink.bc.ca

27th January 1997
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, B.C.
PEP Task# 97-3818

Wednesday, 22nd January 1997:
Arrowsmith Search & Rescue received a call from the RCM Police at
approximately 2000 hrs that a 53 year-old Lynda Darlene Scott was missing
from her rural home in Nanoose Bay, near Parksville on Vancouver Island.
The woman seemed to have suddenly disappeared - leaving three young
grandchildren unattended, something she, apparently, would
normally never do.

Local SAR teams responded throughout the night in below-freezing
temperatures, but did not find any clues as to her whereabouts. Further
investigations did not reveal any indication of potential abduction,
nor were any items of clothing or personal effects missing. Bank
accounts were also checked but no transactions were reported.


Thursday, 23rd January 1997:
Additional SAR teams were called in to help with the search, along
with Joel Hardin, the skilled Tracker/Trainer from Washington State.
The temperature remained below freezing as search teams scoured the
wooded hillsides, farms and shoreline marshes for clues, but no new
information was uncovered. As night fell the temperatured dropped to
-10C as the searchers continued their efforts.

Friday, 24th January 1997:
Search operations were rapidly stepped up in an increased effort to
find the subject, with approximately 135 searchers participating in
the operation. By midday the SAR Resource Kit was requested from
Vancouver, B.C. to provide additional logistic and plannning support.
Despite intensive search efforts throughout the day no new field clues
were discovered. However police investigations did reveal that the
subject had previously disapeared under similar circumstances in 1994,
but at that time she had been found close to her home, after being
missing for 13 hours.

By approximately midnight the SAR Resource Kit was installed at the
Nanoose Bay Firehall, providing extensive communications, search
planning and team tracking functions to the operation. As planners
prepared for a major weekend search effort the overnight temperature
dropped to -17C and snow began to fall.

Saturday, 25th January 1997:
Approximately 145 searchers were registered Saturday morning and
extensive 'low visibility' gridsearching was undertaken across
aproximately 15 defined search areas. By mid-afternoon the first
clue of the operation was discovered - a cancelled bank deposit slip
with the subject surname on it. Additional SAR teams and trackers were
deployed to the site of the clue but no additional information was
discovered. Later that afternoon investigations revealed that the
deposit slip belonged to a family relative who had been searching in
that area.

At nightfall a meeting was held with the RCM Police to discuss all
relevant information and future directions for the operation. At the
conclusion of the meeting addition SAR teams were requested from the
Vancouver and the Fraser Valley of B.C's Lower Mainland, to augment the
local resources, who by now had been searching for more than three days.

Sunday, 26th January 1997:
Assignment planning and prioritizing continued until 2am Sunday morning,
by which time the overhead team completed their action plan for daylight.
At approximately 3am a phone call from the RCM Police indicated that the
subject has just walked back into her home! No clear explanation for the
disappearance and reappearance of the subject was available at that time.
By 5am all the SAR teams had been stood down and at dawn the operations
base was taken down and the Resource Kit trailer repacked for its trip
back to Vancouver.


Martin Colwell
Lions Bay Search & Rescue

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