Search for missing North Okanagan man continues

The search for a North Okanagan man who went missing days earlier is continuing, with the stakes getting higher the longer he’s not been found.

The effort to find Robert Baines entered its third full day on Friday and despite a vast amount of ground covered around Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park, little has been discovered about the 83-year-old’s whereabouts.

“The terrain in the park is incredibly varied,” Leigh Pearson of Vernon Search and Rescue said.

Pearson said some of the 50 searchers from around the Southern Interior were diverted to neighbourhoods on Friday. They knocked on around 50 doors, requesting footage from backyard cameras and access to yards.

“Official provincial search and rescue members will be wearing search and rescue identifiable clothing and have provincial ID,” Pearson said. “Statistically, the highest probability of locating a person in this type of search is within a structure.”

0:48 SAR crews saved more than 1,000 lives in 2022, report says

It has yet to yield a lead. Nor has a drone search of the area that started earlier this week.

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A challenge faced by searchers is that Baines, who was recently diagnosed with dementia, would likely have left with only the clothes on his back, Pearson said. So that means he isn’t likely to drop items and leave a trail.

Pearson  said they’re deciding today if the search will be suspended pending new leads. The end of today’s search is 4 p.m., due to safety risks associated with after-dark rescue efforts.

The North Okanagan man is five-foot-nine,  200 pounds, bald and has brown eyes.

He was last seen wearing a green Tilly hat, green jacket grey undershirt, blue jeans and white hiking shoes.

The trajectory of his travel is also difficult to nail down, so that widens search parametres.

“That definitely complicates things hugely,” Pearson said.

Anyone who lives in the area and is not home but would like to permit a search is asked to forward their address to vsarclues@gmail.com.

If the property does get searched, search and rescuers will leave a piece of flagging tape with search and rescue markings.