Missing Manitoba grandmother, presumed dead, found alive after four-day ordeal

A rural Manitoba grandmother who was missing so long that police called off the search looking for her turned up alive over the weekend.

Mary Byman, 84, was reported missing on Wednesday after she went berry picking with friends near Piney, Manitoba and didn’t return.

According to Byman’s granddaughter, Rachel Geurts, the family was warned by authorities after four days that they should prepare for the worst – that searchers were likely looking for a body.

Byman had gone missing in an area with challenging terrain, thick vegetation, and dense forest, so her chances for survival weren’t high, especially for an octogenarian.

“When you’re closer to a trail, it’s usually not as dense, but as soon as you start to go in even about a hundred yards, vines can trap your feet,” Geurts told Global News.

“When I went out for the search on Saturday, I got tripped up by some vines, I fell into some trees, and some branches went into my leg. It’s very difficult.”

On the outskirts of the forest area, she said, there’s a swampy region with a lot of hidden animal dens that a person could easily fall into, and despite the resources used in the search, things were looking bleak.

“There were dogs, there were horses, there were people on ATVs out,” she said. “They said something like 300 people had come to show up over the course of three to four days.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There were dogs, there were horses, there were people on ATVs out," she said. "They said something like 300 people had come to show up over the course of three to four days.

“We had drones, we had a helicopter and two planes – they covered so much ground. We just didn’t know what else they could have done.”

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The family was devastated when the ground search was declared over, but only hours after officials feared the worst, there was unexpectedly good news: Byman was found not far from where she went missing, and is now recovering in hospital.

RCMP said a group of searchers fired a gunshot in the air and heard a faint cry for help in response. They fired again and heard another cry, giving them a direction to search in.

After about 40 minutes, they were able to find Byman in thick bush. Local firefighters spent more than two hours clearing a path to reach her.

“I saw that my brother was calling, and I wasn’t going to answer, because I was having a hard time dealing with things myself,” said Geurts.

“I answered the phone… and he’s crying, and he just says, ‘she’s alive. They found her and she’s alive.’ I just jumped out of bed and I kind of started screaming.

“After trying to deal with them telling you that she’s dead, for her to sort of pop back to life, it’s unbelievable.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "After trying to deal with them telling you that she's dead, for her to sort of pop back to life, it's unbelievable."

Geurts said the help the searchers received from RCMP and volunteers was invaluable, and urged anyone going through a similar situation to keep pushing forward and to do whatever they can to get the message out there.

Global News has reached out to RCMP for comment.