UPDATE: The body of a 15-year-old boy who was swept away by a northern Alberta river over the weekend has been recovered according to the RCMP. Police announced the body’s discovery on Aug. 3, 2017.
Search efforts continued Wednesday in northwest Alberta for a teen who went missing in the Smoky River on July 28.
On July 30, Mounties said officers were called to the waterway about 10 kilometres downstream from the Watino Bridge at around 8:30 p.m. Friday night. They said a 15-year-old boy was swimming with a group of people when he got caught in the undercurrent and pulled under. Witnesses told police he came up and went down again before he was swept away.
According to a Hutterite search team en route to the scene, the victim was from the nearby Shady Lane Hutterite Colony.
A team of divers with HEART (Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team) left from Manitoba Saturday night. HEART said its divers would not interfere with the RCMP’s response, however, would assist in search or recovery efforts.
Spirit River RCMP said Wednesday they were assisted by British Columbia members of the E Division underwater recovery team (URT) on July 31.
“URT members searched all probable areas using sonar and physical dives along the river,” RCMP said in a statement. “The URT has since concluded their search and river boat patrols will continue along the river from the site of the disappearance.”
Watino, Alta. is located about 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
With files from Global’s Erika Tucker
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