RCMP calls off search for missing N.W.T. teens
After a three-day intensive search by air and water, RCMP have called off efforts to find twoyoung Yellowknife men who have been missing on Great Slave Lake since Friday.
Late Monday, police notified the families of Randy Leisk Jr., 15,and Michael Luzny, 18,of their decision to end the search, after efforts by airplane, helicopter and boat since Friday night turned up no sign of the boys.
"We've come up with absolutely no indication of anything on the water or on the shorelines that would suggest that the young people are either still on the surface of the water or managed to get out of the water onto the shore," Behchoko RCMP Sgt. Francis Cullen, who led the police's search efforts, told CBC News on Monday.
But family and friends are continuing tosearch. On Monday night, people werecamping out at Old Fort Rae and shuttling in gas from the dock at Frank Channel.
On Tuesday, two young women were seendistributing leaflets around downtown Yellowknife, encouraging people to join them in their search.
Catrina Stiopu, whoidentified herself asLeisk's cousin, said three to four days is not enough for officials to call off the search.
Friend stayed in boat
The only clues RCMP haveto datecame from Nazon Goulet, a friend who was with Leisk and Luzny on the lake's North Arm when their aluminum boat broke down.
Cullen said Goulet recalled the engine stoppingas the men were in the midst of a15-kilometre journey from Frank Channel to Old Fort Rae, the site of an old Métis community.
Goulet told police the three camped on an island on the first night, then tried paddling the rest of the way. But after paddling for hours, Luzny and Leisk decided to put on lifejackets and try to swim to shore.
"They were in that boat probably for 12 [to] 14 hours and weren't making any headway against a strong headwind and current, and felt that the distance that they were looking at was probably less than what it really was," Cullen said, adding that policeestimate that the boat was more than four kilometres from shore.
Goulet stayed in the boat, eventually drifting about 15 kilometres to land near the North Arm Territorial Park. Cullen said that's what boaters should generally do: stay in the boat.
"In these temperatures, hypothermia can come into play within an hour of entering the water," he said. "The expectation of someone finding you within an hour in this country, with the vastness of it, is just something that won't happen."