Local rangers join search for missing 6-year-old boy in Shamattawa

A large-scale search in Shamattawa First Nation for a six year-old-boy who has been missing for more than a day will continue at daybreak Friday, RCMP said Thursday night.

The boy, Johnson Redhead, attended a breakfast program at the school in the northeastern Manitoba First Nation until 9 a.m. on Wednesday, but didn't show up in class after that, RCMP said in a Thursday afternoon news release.

"Six years old … is too young to be going missing," RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre told CBC Thursday night. "We need to know where he is," said Manaigre.

He said searchers "do have temperatures working in our favour" — temperatures were not expected to drop lower than the mid-teens overnight.

While the search was pausing for the night, Manaigre said it would resume Friday.

"Hopefully we're going to get some kind of clues tomorrow and hopefully we get a positive outcome." 

Police were contacted about Johnson's disappearance around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Community members and RCMP officers immediately started a search, combing wooded areas, trails, roads and sheds and checking construction equipment looking for the boy, police said.

ATVs and other vehicles are being used for search, along with a search by foot.

The RCMP's search and rescue team, along with personnel from the Office of the Fire Commissioner, are helping to search for Johnson in Shamattawa, located about 750 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

About 50 to 100 volunteers from the community helped with the search Thursday, said Manaigre. A drone and a police dog are also headed to Shamattawa to help Friday.

"The more stuff we get, the better," he said. 

Police are asking anyone with information on Johnson's whereabouts to contact Shamattawa RCMP at 204-565-2351 or anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.

Rangers, volunteer searchers helping out

Members of the 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group are also helping with the ground search.

Lt.-Col. Vincent Couturier, the patrol group's commanding officer, says the RCMP requested their assistance on Wednesday for ground search and rescue efforts.

The patrol, which consists of part-time reservists who serve in isolated communities, are often solicited for support, Couturier said, getting two or three requests on average every month, but never before to help locate a missing child.

"Right now, to my knowledge, that's the first time," Couturier told CBC News in an interview.

"[The RCMP] needed more personnel to do some ground search and rescue and improve the mobility and the coverage," he said. 

Eight Canadian Rangers who live in Shamattawa First Nation were immediately deployed and will continue to work with the RCMP for the next 72 hours.

Couturier said mobility will be the main challenge throughout the operation, adding the community is only accessible by air during this time of year. 

"[The] Canadian Ranger patrol that is on site is from that community … so they are concerned," Couturier said.

Four members of Winnipeg Volunteer Search and Rescue also arrived in Shamattawa on Thursday to help with the search, the group told CBC News in an email.

But as the search continues in Shamattawa, some residents are experiencing landline phone disruptions after a fire damaged some Bell MTS infrastructure in the area, the company said in a statement.