Teams continue to scour the South Saskatchewan River south of Saskatoon for any sign of a 17-year-old boy.
Crews were searching the area by land, air and on water on Monday after the teen was reported missing the night before at around 8:45 p.m. CT.
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It was at that time that Saskatoon RCMP were notified of his disappearance from a popular beach area, known as the Fred Heal canoe launch, approximately 12 kilometres south of the city.
“After RCMP eliminated any other possibilities of where the young boy could have been, we deployed all the resources we could to try to locate the boy,” Greg Abbott, with the Saskatoon RCMP, said.
“Including Saskatoon Police Service air division, STARS – all the resources we could muster last night and were unable to locate the boy.”
On Monday morning, the RCMP brought in their ‘F Division’ search and rescue team as well as the Rescue Saskatchewan Association of Volunteers (SARSAV) and Civilian Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA).
Searchers are combing as much area as possible for the unidentified teen.
“That’s why of course we utilize air services including STARS, Saskatoon police and CASARA.”
Air services equipped to conduct night time searches were accessed Sunday night and the underwater recovery team was on scene.
“Some areas are extremely shallow, some areas are deeper – the river’s lower at this point.”
In addition to those resources, there were roughly 60 civilians helping out with the search and rescue effort.
According to RCMP, the biggest challenges they’re up against is the area they need to cover, since it’s a body of water that’s not contained like a lake, and the speed of the river.
“I’m not able to conjecture at this point where the search is at only to say we’re using all the resources we can at our disposal to try and locate the boy as quickly as we can.”
Out of respect for the family, the boy is not being identified at this time. Victim’s services were also on site providing support where it was needed.
RCMP also confirming to the media that swimming is generally allowed at the launch.
“We don’t have any indication of alcohol involvement of this.”
Abbott would not indicate the teen’s swimming ability and said they’re not giving up hope to find the boy alive.
“We’re just going to hope for the family’s sake that we locate the boy sooner than later.”
Barricades have now been set up 900 feet from the launch up the road, blocking the public from entering the area.
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