Twenty-three days after a man was swept into Okanagan Lake while inside a vehicle on Westside Road by a mudslide, the Kelowna RCMP and its Underwater Recovery Team have managed to recover his body.
The slide took out part of Westside Road and the hillside on the evening of April 1.
"The landslide that hit Westside Road has been estimated at 20,000 tonnes. That is about the size of a four-story building," said Ed Henczel, a spokesperson for Central Okanagan Search and Rescue (COSAR), a volunteer-run organization made up of individuals with extensive training in search and rescue, who described the massive amount of soil, rocks, logs and debris that was dislodged in the slide.
COSAR was initially called to assist the police and fire department conduct a search of the area on April 2, after the RCMP received an anonymous tip that people experiencing homelessness may have been sheltering near the now-closed Lake Okanagan Resort.
However, with no confirmed reports of people sheltering in the area at the time of the landslide, the search 鈥� conducted by 13 ground members, a drone team, a boat crew and a Search and Rescue dog 鈥� was concluded after six hours.
Then, on April 7, the West Kelowna RCMP opened a missing persons investigation after unique items, a hat, a boot, construction tools, and a notebook, were discovered which were confirmed to belong to someone last seen in the area before the landslide.
On April 11, COSAR's boat was able to search deep areas of the lake with an underwater camera and identified several mechanical items associated with the missing man, refining its search radius.
The next day COSAR utilized a Remote Operated Vehicle and a search dog named Barret, submerged in Okanagan Lake.
On April 23, RCMP and COSAR recovered the body of the man, but the vehicle was not able to be removed at this time.
鈥淲e offer our sincerest condolences to the friends and family of this man and will continue to offer any support services they may require,鈥� said Cpl. Michael Gauthier of the Kelowna RCMP.
