After weeks of search attempts to find missing British tourist Tom Billings, a tip received through social media is something North Shore Rescue are calling their “lucky break.”
On Friday, they have released three videos of their aerial search at Grouse Mountain and Lynn Headwaters in hopes the public will look through them and report something that may assist in locating Billings.
Tim Jones with North Shore Rescue says on Saturday, they received a tip that two female hikers may have seen Billings in the Lynn Headwaters area on November 25.
One of the hikers saw a Tweet mentioning the search for Billings, which jogged her memory about the possible sighting back in November.
The two women then decided to contact the North Vancouver RCMP.
Jones says the reason why it took so long was because one of the women went on vacation and just came back. The other woman has heard about the search but has not seen the pictures, until yesterday.
“For me this is a real lesson for all of us in search and rescue,” says Jones. “Social media is such a key element in finding people.”
The tip resulted in the re-activation of the search for Billings yesterday afternoon. Search crews were back in the area today, but have now wrapped up their efforts. North Shore Rescue are planning one more major search next weekend.
The search for Tom Billings is not the first time that crowd-sourcing search video has been tried.
In 2010, Vancouver hiker Tyler Wright went missing in the mountains south of Squamish.
His family posted video of the air search on their blog asking people to look through the images to help identify things like tarps, fire pits, odd arrangements of rocks and any signs of human activity.
While Wright is still missing, the family managed to get many people to look over the videos.
Jones was involved in the search for Wright, and hopes their continued social media efforts will result in more information in Billings’ case.
Twenty-two-year-old Thomas Billings went missing on November 25. He was supposed to go to the U.S. at the end of the month, and return to England on Dec. 7.
Billings was known to hike when he travelled. His family says he is a very experienced hiker and he has hiked all over the world.
Billings is described as white, 5’7” tall, 160 lbs., with blonde short hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a black jacket and grey military style pants.
Anyone with information on the disappearance of Tom Billings is asked to call the Vancouver Police Department.
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