UPDATE – A suspect in the incident involving the sex trade work has been charged. Curtis Wayne Sagmoen, 36, is in custody pending a bail hearing scheduled for next week. He’s accused of six offenses against the prostitute, including pointing a firearm, uttering threats and disguising his face with intent to commit an offense. Sagmoen is also accused of possessing methamphetamine. RCMP won’t say if Sagmoen lives on the search property but a 4-1-1 inquiry of the address comes back as Wayne Sagmoen.
There’s no confirmation of what they’re looking for, but RCMP from all across the southeastern B.C. have been called in to search a property in the north Okanagan.
READ MORE: Police search property on Salmon River Road in north Okanagan
Mounties started scouring the Salmon River Road property Thursday. They’ve launched a “full deployment” of RCMP officers specially trained in search techniques.
Officers are now closely combing over a home, numerous barns, outbuildings and trailers on the property. They’re are also digging up portions of the property with a small excavator, shovels and rakes.
Police aren’t commenting on what the search is for, and are only saying they executed a search warrant “in relation to an ongoing investigation.”
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Caitlin Potts, Ashley Simpson and Deanna Wertz all went missing in the north Okanagan last year.
Both Simpson and Wertz were living on Yankee Flats Road, which is near where police are searching, before they disappeared separately in 2016.
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The women’s families said they have been in contact with the RCMP, but police have told them “at this time we have no indication that it is connected.”
Last Friday, police issued a warning related to Salmon River Road after a woman was allegedly threatened with a firearm earlier this year.
Police said a man and woman used a “website utilized by escorts and sex workers” to arrange a meeting in the area of Salmon River Road.
READ MORE: Okanagan sex workers warned after woman allegedly threatened with firearm
Neighbour Ryan McDonald said police have been to the area multiple times since August, when his wife heard a gunshot on the property.
“All hell’s breaking loose at the neighbour’s here,” McDonald said.
McDonald said he’s never met his neighbour, but has seen him many times out front of his house and describes him as in his mid-fifties, very quiet, and of slight build, with blond hair.
WATCH BELOW: RCMP have converged on a north Okanagan property to execute a search warrant. What they’re looking for is unclear but a neighbour tells Global News RCMP have been working in the area for weeks following a gun incident reported back in August. Doris Maria Bregolisse reports.
RCMP have not released any new information on the search since issuing a press release Thursday afternoon, but the search is expected to take several days.
-with files from Blaine Gaffney, Megan Turcato and Doris Bregolisse
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