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Search suspended for missing teen

The search for a missing teen was suspended shortly after noon on Sunday, two days after the 15-year-old boy was swept underwater while swimming near Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park Friday afternoon.

The search for a missing teen was suspended shortly after noon on Sunday, two days after the 15-year-old boy was swept underwater while swimming near Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park Friday afternoon.

 

RCMP brought in a dive team Sunday morning to assist, with help from a four-member Prince George Search and Rescue team, but found no sign of the teen.

 

They focused their search in the slough and along the slough shoreline down to Lansdowne, said Dale Bull, Prince George Search and Rescue information officer.

 

“At this point RCMP missing person file will remain open and their investigation will continue looking for any new leads,” said Bull of the search near Hudson's Bay Wetland Natural Park (more commonly known as Hudson Bay's Slough).

 

“(Rivers are) a lot more powerful and faster than people realize and unfortunately when people go missing in them, it is very difficult to locate them.”

 

“The Fraser (River) itself is still very cold,” said Bull. “It is very easy to become hypothermic in the water.”

 

From a searching-standpoint, water temperature is the biggest concern, he said.

 

Searching in the area was also slowed by visibility. Bull said he received reports that the divers could not see beyond their hands.

 

“The water is quite murky,” he said, which made for slow searching.

 

The divers, who were brought in from the Lower Mainland early Sunday morning, started just after 8 a.m.

 

Prince George RCMP appealed to the public for help Saturday in helping locate a teen, who was reported missing around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon after swimming with another 15-year-old male near the slough.

 

The police are asking for any information from anyone who may have seen two 15-year-old males near the slough or the park before 4 p.m. Friday.

 

Crews from the RCMP, the Prince George Search & Rescue Society and Emergency Management B.C. conducted a search on foot, by boat and in the air but were unable to locate the teen before darkness fell Friday.

 

Bull said 19 people responded by helicopter, jet boat, inflatable boats and on foot Friday, searching from the park to Red Rock. He said the search Saturday continued by jet boat.

 

The missing youth is described as a five-foot-five, 120 pound male with short blonde hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans; gold and black DC running shoes; and a black T-shirt.

 

If you have any information, please contact the Prince George RCMP detachment at 250-561-3300.