Residents who live near Wascana Trails, northwest of Regina, took to horseback Monday, the most recent tool in the search for Donald Barnett, 86, who went missing last week.
“We can have people come from a distance, but they’re local, they want to volunteer their time, they’re all here because they want to help us and help the family find Mr. Barnett,” Regina RCMP Cpl. John Ermel said.
Barnett was reported missing on July 5 after a hike through the trails, a familiar area to him, and to volunteers like Tim Lipsett, who brought his horse along for the search.
“I rode a lot of bikes through here, walked through here,” he said. “I came here a lot as a kid, so I know it pretty well.”
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For a search that has already used canoes, ATVs and motorized helicopters, it’s the most recent tool being used to find Barnett.
“Horses have different perspective than maybe someone on foot doesn’t have, keener senses of sight, smell, hearing,” Cpl. Ermel said.
There have been possible leads since Barnett was reported missing. Investigators scoured his car, which was found in the parking lot. It showed no signs of anything suspicious. Then a tip came in of someone matching Barnett’s description at a business in Lumsden, Sask., but an investigation proved that was yet another lead that went nowhere.
Area resident Dale Osborne thought for sure he had found Barnett after deciding to help with the search over the weekend. That is when he heard a noise in the silent valley.
“I could hear this tapping; it sounded like two twigs tapping together,” Osborne said. “Whatever was there, I could tell it to stop, and it would stop.”
He followed the sounds to a gorge, but there was nothing there.
“It was quite a few hours and I never saw signs of anybody,” he said.
The lack of clues is difficult for Barnett’s family, who say the day he went missing was just like any other.
“I was actually waiting for him to come home so we could do the weekly food shop and he just didn’t come home,” said his wife Diana.
RCMP say given the weather conditions over the weekend, they are still optimistic there will be a happy ending.
“We are still looking for Mr. Barnett and we are hoping to bring him home healthy to his family,” Cpl. Ermel said.
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