Hutterite search team works to bring closure to grieving families of Sask. drowning victims

A woman says she's grateful for the work of the underwater search team that helped recover her father's body after he drowned — and now she's helping to raise funds for the Manitoba-based recovery team, which also works in Saskatchewan.

The Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team, or HEART, specializes in underwater search and recovery. It's based at the Oak Bluff Hutterite Colony, just south of Winnipeg, and helps Saskatchewan RCMP look for people here when needed. That's included past searches in northern Saskatchewan at Peter Pond Lake and Makwa Lake. 

On July 22 of this year, the the team found the body of drowning victim Eric Tourond in Lake Diefenbaker.

The group also helped find the body of Naomi Murray's father after he fell from his boat in Manitoba's Moose Lake in May. 

Now she's joined HEART to help with fundraising for the team — a registered charity which takes donations through its website.

"It was really hard for my family knowing he was in the water … but knowing that we couldn't see him and we couldn't find him," said Murray.

"Our hearts completely broken. We were shattered that day.… Being able to have his body returned to us, it's almost like a piece of your heart is returned to you."

Murray said the team's work brings a sense of closure and helps in the mourning process. 

Paul Maendel, who is part of the non-profit HEART, said hearing stories like Murray's gives him a feeling of accomplishment and gratitude.

"If we were able to alleviate their pain and their suffering in some meaningful way, it validates what we've worked for and what we prayed for," Maendel said. "We're very grateful to be able to help them." 

In 1998, Maendel's seven-year-old cousin went missing. The Oak Bluff colony searched for two days before a dive team was called in.

Maendel went on to train as a diver in the following years and earned his advanced diving certification. He had formed a dive team as a hobby, recruiting his brother and five others from the colony to train as divers.

Then in 2016, a young girl went missing, but the team wasn't able to dive because of river conditions.

That's when they decided to explore using remote operated vehicles and sonar technology, Maendel says.

"That helplessness spurred us on to become trained in this specific, specialized undertaking."

After fundraising and training for the next few years, the team's members have now been trained to work with the remote operated vehicles and sonar technology.

In the past three years, the team has recovered 10 drowning victims.

"Most recovery can take days, sometimes months. And in those situations, it's an excruciatingly long wait," Maendel said.

"There's just a whole host of problems that don't go away until the body is recovered. So we see a lot of families suffering."

Thousands of supporters help with the equipment and two or three team members go on each search.

Maendel said they want to keep helping and are now fundraising to buy a specialized hovercraft boat that can be used on ice searches in the winter.