*** SAR Teams Recover Suicide Victim ***

From:    Martin Colwell
email:   sarinfo@istar.ca
Date:    5th February 1999
Subject: SAR Teams Recover Suicide Victim

As high winds and a heavy rainstorm pounded the Lower Mainland Lions Bay Search & Rescue received a report that the vehicle of a missing person had just been found - with a suicide note inside. The vehicle was found at one of the trailhead's into Vancouver B.C.'s University Endowment Land's (UEL), one of the largest urban forests in North America.

A combined mutual-aid response was immediately requested, including Lions Bay SAR, Surrey SAR and Coquitlam SAR, all local SAR teams surrounding the city of Vancouver.

6th February 1999

At 0620 hours a meeting with the RCMP's UEL detachment was convened at which the circumstances of the incident were discussed. A search plan was formulated which included a statistical profile of this kind of subject and worked on the possibility that the subject might still be alive.

At 0730 hours Coquitlam SAR's mobile Command Post was set up at the Fraser Monument parking lot, the Point Last Seen. Search dogs were requested from the Vancouver Police and two Coast Guard vessels were tasked to search the shoreline adjacent to the park. While ground-search assignments were being developed an RCMP helicopter was prepared for air-searching and an ambulance was brought to the PLS, in case immediate medical assistance and evacuation were required. 

At approximately 0900 hours, following registration and briefings, search teams began their trail and area-search assignments. The forest was rain-soaked from a week of steady rains, which made the ground sodden, muddy and slippery. The morning was punctuated by periods of heavy rainfall and cold, offshore winds.

Within ten minutes of starting their assignment one of the teams reported that they had found the subject, apparently deceased. The medical backup team, including paramedics and the RCMP, were immediately despatched and quickly confirmed that the subject was deceased. The area was then sealed off from the public and a call placed to the coroner, notifying her of the incident.

While the coroner was travelling to the site a recovery team cleared a stretcher evacuation route up a steep, water-soaked bank, back towards the trail. At approximately 1100 hours the coroner arrived and after a site inspection the recovery process commenced. The heavy rains continued while a rope hauling system was used to assist the evacuation.

By approximately midday the evacuation back to the trail and the nearby highway was completed. The coroner's service then took custody of the deceased and the SAR team members, by now soaking wet from working in the heavy rain, were able to stand down.

Prepared by Martin Colwell
sarinfo@istar.ca
Lions Bay Search & Rescue

PEP Task# 994138
RCMP File # 99-405