–Alberta RCMP have still not found the third missing teenage girl involved in a river incident last week that led to the death of two other teens she was with, officials said Sunday.
The extensive search for the 17-year-old girl has continued through the weekend, with RCMP conducting Saturday what it called an extensive ground search, both in the areas where the incident happened and downstream.
On Sunday, RCMP confirmed they were still searching for the third girl by boat and helicopter as well as with search divers brought in from Manitoba. Officials said Sunday they were refocusing their efforts closer to the area where the incident happened.
RCMP and EMS were called to the Spring Coulee area on the St. Mary River Wednesday at around 10:30 p.m., about 50 kilometres south of Lethbridge.
Officials said that a group of about 10 people went swimming and canoeing earlier Wednesday. At around 7:30 p.m., three female youths “encountered difficulty” while they were trying to get out of the water, police said.
One girl was found and pronounced dead at the scene. Two other girls were swept away, police said. Lethbridge search and rescue crews worked through the night, and at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, a second girl was found and pronounced dead.
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Senior members of the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony told Global News the two girls whose bodies were recovered were 17-year-old Linda Waldner and 16-year-old Martha Waldner. The missing teen is 17-year-old Naomi Waldner.
Naomi is described as five-feet-two-inches tall with long, dark hair that would have been in a braid. She was wearing a long, green dress with sleeves when she vanished.
–With files from Taz Dhaliwal, Liam Nixon, and Danica Ferris, Global News
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