Body of 42-year-old whose ATV fell through ice of Winnipeg River found: RCMP

A specialized underwater recovery team recovered the body of a man who fell through thin ice while driving an all-terrain vehicle across the Winnipeg River last week, RCMP say. The man drowned, despite an attempt to save him.

RCMP in Powerview, Man., received a report around 1 a.m. on March 18 about an ATV trying to cross the Winnipeg River — just north of White Mud Falls, Man., which is just over 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg — followed by calls for help.

Responding officers could hear calls for help as they approached the river, and they spotted a man clinging to the ice.

The officers and a volunteer firefighter who lived nearby grabbed a life-jacket and some rescue ropes. They walked onto the ice to try and reach the man, but he started struggling in the water, police say.

The man went under and did not resurface. Police presumed the man had drowned.

On Monday, RCMP announced that the body of the man, a 42-year-old from the rural municipality of Alexander, was found Saturday. The Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team (HEART), a Manitoba non-profit devoted to recovering the bodies of drowning victims, found the body with help from the man's family, police say.

The 42-year-old and another man — a 37-year-old from Great Falls, Man. — were riding ATVs and tried crossing the river when both vehicles broke through the thin ice, police say.

The 37-year-old, however, managed to pull himself out of the water. He made it to a nearby dock and sat there, but police didn't see him when they first arrived, a police spokesperson said.

Once paramedics arrived on scene, they found the 37-year-old and took him to a nearby house, where he was treated for hypothermia, the spokesperson said.

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