Amanda Michayluk’s final moments were spent walking alone, lost in the snow in a Saskatchewan farmer’s field, as her family awaited an RCMP search and rescue team that would never arrive.
A scathing report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP says officers responding to calls for help from her family did an inadequate ground search.
The partially redacted report, made public under freedom of information laws, details at least 36 hours of serious missteps by the Mounties.
Michayluk’s family called 911 after she got lost in the snow when collecting firewood with her father near Maidstone in 2019.
The report found responding officers didn’t follow protocol, made unsupported assumptions, and unreasonably concluded Michayluk was picked up by a passing motorist.
A volunteer search party unaffiliated with the RCMP ended up finding Michayluk’s body. She died from hypothermia.
The report says it is possible she might have been found alive were it not for the RCMP’s failures. Mounties did not say whether any officer was disciplined over the investigation.
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