RCMP say there’s little hope of finding Lytton fisherman Duane Aleck alive after he likely fell into the Fraser River last month while trying to untangle a fishing net.
“It’s a mighty river – like lots of rivers in Canada – that they don’t easily give up their conquests,” said Cpl. Madonna Saunderson of the B.C. RCMP.
Cpl. Saunderson said area Mounties did what they could to find Aleck, an avid fisherman from the Lytton First Nation after he was reported missing on June 18.
She said police in a helicopter flew over the river twice in two days after witnesses reported various sightings of someone wearing an orange flotation device in the river. And, she said, they scoured the banks and alerted other detachments along the river’s path to keep an eye out.
“Sadly, at this point, they’ve done what they can, and they’re now in a position where it would be a recovery versus a rescue,” Saunderson said last week.
But Aleck’s family members say police could have done more.
The family wanted police to put boats on the river, sniffer dogs along the shore and a drone in the air, it said in a press release that criticized the police response.
Saunderson said she’s aware of the negative feedback.
She said RCMP contacted the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) who recommended the flyover. She said a police dog isn’t used for suspected drownings. And a drone was overruled in favour of the helicopter.
“A recovery mission would be when we put a boat in the water,” she added.
Some of Duane Aleck’s belongings were recovered at his favourite fishing spot below Kumsheen Secondary School in Lytton. A fishing net found downstream and some food on the bank are also believed to be his.
As part of their efforts to locate Aleck, on June 29 family members and friends dropped a dozen bright orange boards from the train bridge into the Fraser River near where he was swept away.
They hoped the boards would lead them to where the currents may have carried Aleck.
The boards are four to five feet long and include contact information for the Aleck family in Lytton.
"If someone finds one we would like it to be reported — when it was found and where it was found,” said Aleck’s nephew Ivan Machelle. “That will let us know where he could have ended up or maybe got to shore."
Family members say currents could have carried Aleck downstream to where the Fraser meets the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Whidbey Island in Washington State.
