Searchers dam water, bring in backhoe in desperate quest to find Quebec woman swept over waterfall

After 12 days of fruitlessly searching for any sign of Maïté Viens, a determined group of police and volunteers have blocked the water that flows into one of the Jean-Larose waterfalls and are digging into the sediment below the falls with a backhoe.

Viens, 21, had been hiking with a friend May 21.

She lost her footing and fell into fast-flowing water, then was swept over a waterfall at the foot of Mont-Sainte-Anne in Beaupré, 40 kilometres northwest of Quebec City.

For days, scuba divers have combed the water below the falls looking for Viens's remains, with no results.

Today, a team of people still devoted to the search has changed its tactics drastically.

Tearing into sediment with backhoe

Employing a dam above the falls, rescue workers have cut off the water that feeds the river's third and last waterfall and brought in heavy machinery to tear into the sediment and sand that has accumulated at its base.

"Today is D-day," said family friend and scuba-diver Mario Desrapse. "We will find her.... We have an enormous amount of patience."

Desrapse is convinced Viens rests below one of the pools at the base of the falls.

After the backhoe digs about four metres into the sidement, the search crew will then use shovels and pails to continue the work by hand.

To the 'very end'

Desrapse has come from the Magdelan Islands, where Viens and her parents are also from, to take part in the search.

"You have to face the situation and go to the very end," he said.

"No one deserves to be left in a ditch. It's painful to wait."