An RCMP spokesperson says with the spring break up on the Carrot River, searchers can safely return to the water as they look for Frank Young.
The 5-year-old has been missing from Red Earth Cree Nation in northeast Saskatchewan since April 19.
RCMP Insp. Murray Chamberlin was the only official to speak at a morning update on Wednesday regarding the search efforts.
He says the search continues in spite of the provincial “missing vulnerable person” public alert being cancelled Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re able to track where searchers have been using GPS technology,” he says. “Tools like this allow us to record our search efforts and allow us to make informed decisions about where to search in the days to come as we along, with many other organizations and individuals, continue to look for Frank.”
Chamberlin says he can’t comment on specific tips police have received from the public around sightings of Young but says all tips have been actively investigated.
Meanwhile, a GPS map has been released to show where searchers have looked within the 92 square kilometre search area – which was determined based on the probability of how far a five-year-old could travel.
Chamberlin says the ground search has been complicated by the spring run-off and melt.
“The snowpack is decreasing significantly, visibly with the warm weather we’ve had over the weekend. However, this has led to some complications for-especially for the ground searchers. A number of areas are flooded, the muskeg is very, very wet and it’s causing issues,” he says.
“They were trying to use ATVs which were getting stuck, they tried Argo’s and even that wasn’t overly successful.”
Chamberlin says the water search would continue for a number of weeks.
“Every search is unique, it has to be continually assessed,” he says. “We’ll search until we’re confident we’ve exhausted all investigative opportunities.
“In this case, we’re going to focus our search on the Carrot River and will continue to follow up on leads that may come up in that time.”
