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Desperate search continues for missing Whistler senior 

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Search for missing senior continues in Whistler
The search for a missing Whistler senior is now in its sixth day. 80-year-old Robert McKean has been missing since Monday, and today more than 50 members of Whistler Search and Rescue were on the case, hoping to find any trace of him. Paul Johnson has the latest. – Oct 14, 2023

The massive search in Whistler for a missing senior man continued on Saturday.

Search and rescue personnel from B.C.’s South Coast are assisting in the search trying to locate Robert McKean and his dog Lexi.

“We are on Day 6 (Saturday). We have a really great turnout from across Southern B.C.,” said SAR Whistler manager Brad Sills.

“We have 83 people from 12 different teams — both from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. (Saturday’s) objective is to increase our probability of detection in some of the higher probability areas. We are committing significant resources to re-doing some one those areas.”

Robert McKean, 80, and his dog, Lexi, were last seen on Oct. 9 around 10:20 a.m. Whistler RCMP

McKean was last seen on Thanksgiving Day, while out walking Lexi at the top of Alpine Way, according to Whistler RCMP.

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Crews have already combed all the trails in the area McKean was believed to have been walking.

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Search-and-rescue teams from as far away as Vancouver Island have been helping comb the area where McKean disappeared all week, and have been moving into increasingly remote hiking and mountain bike trails.

On Friday, Whistler Search and Rescue and Whistler RCMP released a photo of a man riding a bicycle at the top of Alpine Way, in the hope that he may have seen McKean.

Anyone who recognizes this man is asked to contact Whistler Search and Rescue. Whistler RCMP

Anyone who recognizes the cyclist is asked to contact Whistler Search and Rescue directly.

McKean, who lives with dementia, is described as five-feet-six-inches tall, 130 pounds with a slim build. He was last seen wearing a green jacket, a baseball hat, blue jeans and a blue Vancouver Canucks hoodie.

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Lexi is a white and ginger Cavalier Spaniel.

Sills said if McKean is not found on Saturday, they will talk to family members and reevaluate the efforts made so far.

— With files from Simon Little

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