On the fourth day of the search for 5-year-old Darius McDougal, he went missing during a camping trip with his family near Calunestopass, but there are no signs of a missing Lethbridge, Alta or a boy.
During daily updates on Wednesday, RCMP and search experts provided details on the search and how the little boy went missing.
RCMP says that searching for 5-year-old Darius McDougal is becoming more challenging because he is autistic.
Courtesy: RCMP
Adam Kennedy, the state training manager for Alberta Search and Rescue, said the boy was walking with other families on Sunday, within a mile of the campground at Island Lake Campground in Alberta, about 250 km south of Calgary.
“Darius was with a family of six, and I understand that they were all young. There were no adults in the group,” RCMP Cpl said. Gina Slaney pointed out that she could not provide their exact age.
When the group returned to the family campground, Darius was not with them.
“Our general research section is now on the ground and they have very detailed interviews with everyone, so we hope we can get a little better understanding in the next few hours,” added Slaney.
However, RCMP claims there is no indication that the foul play is involved in the boy's loss disappearance.
Adam Kennedy, the state training manager for Search and Rescue Alberta, says about 100 people are currently involved in the search for 5-year-old Darius McDougal.
Source: Zoom interview
Currently, other agencies, such as the Salvation Army, are providing assistance, including multiple search and rescue agencies from both Alberta and British Columbia, conservation officers, fish and wildlife personnel, Alberta Sheriff and members of the Canadian Task Force 2.
Kennedy said Canadian military was also contacted to determine whether there were assets that could help with the search effort.
The search crew is concentrated in an area 3 km in each direction from the campsite, but it gradually expands to 6.6 km.
The area where the 5-year-old boy went missing has been described by searchers as a combination of multiple waterways in thick forests and steep alpine areas, so crews will have to work shoulder-to-shoulder to cover the area.
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The area is said to be a combination of thick forests with multiple streams and rivers, including Beaver Dam and marsh, steep alpine terrain and open areas, allowing searchers to operate almost shoulder-to-shoulder to effectively cover the area.
“Overnight, the search team continued a ground search supported by one RCMP helicopter and two search and rescue dogs from the Canadian Search Dog Association,” Kennedy said.
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“Today, we have 68 searchers from a combination of Alberta and BC teams working with two RCMP dog teams, one helicopter and multiple drones.”
Concerns were raised when a searcher discovered what appears to be blood, but Slaney called out the RCMP Forensic Identification Team to analyze the sample and confirmed that it was not blood, human or animal.
Quick water and underwater rescuers are also searching all the waters in the area, some of which have been searched up to three times, according to Kennedy.
There are also searchers who can ride horses if necessary, but Kennedy added, but so far, “horse backs are not seen as useful assets” due to the involvement of terrain.
Because he has autism, the exploration of the little boy has become more challenging.
Slaney confirmed that he can communicate verbally, but “there is concern that he may not interact well with people calling his name. If he hears people from the research and rescue team calling his name, he may not answer.”
Despite the public's offer to help find the boy, searchers argue that the task is best left to the experts to prevent inexperienced searchers from inadvertently destroying possible evidence, getting caught in trouble or being rescued.
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Slaney said searchers were “thank you and thank you” for many offers to get involved in the search, but she and Kennedy argued that it's best to leave both to experts.
“One thing is safe for both our searchers and the public when they're out on the rough terrain we deal with here,” Kennedy said.
“Another consideration is that the public will come in and destroy any clues that could have been taken up by the search and rescue team.”
“Public members who are not trained in recognition of that cues may trample on some of the cues that otherwise allow the search team to guide us into the area and narrow the focus of that search,” Kennedy added.
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However, Slaney said the RCMP is working with community members to set up a place where it can provide search crews with places where perishable supplies such as water and sports drinks can be overthrown.
Overnight, the temperature was soaked in as low as 4°C, but last night it only fell to 11°C, and is expected to be roughly the same for the next few days.
So far, there have been no indications of a little boy, but the searchers claim they have not given up on hope.
“Based on consultations with a leading Alberta doctor on wilderness medicine, we are still working on the assumption that Darius is very alive and that everyone is working on a tempo to reflect that,” Kennedy said. “We still believe he is alive.”
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