Calgary, AB – The Alberta RCMP Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Unit will be conducting an aerial sweep of the Bow and Saskatchewan River, South of Calgary starting Tuesday, September 29 and Wednesday, September 30, 2015. This operation will be coordinated with a similar process being undertaken by the Calgary Police Service within the City of Calgary at the same time. The RCMP will also be coordinating its search with the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat City Police Services in the areas of the rivers that flow through those jurisdictions.
The two day search will start with the RCMP helicopter being deployed along the Bow River from the Southern limit of the City of Calgary to the Saskatchewan border. It will also include a flight over the Oldman River to and including the City of Lethbridge.
While this effort is not directed at any one particular missing persons’ investigation, the search will afford the opportunity to possibly recover the remains of one or more missing people who are known to have entered the river at some point.
The operation will take place today, due to the water levels of the Bow and South Saskatchewan Rivers being at their lowest and clearest at this time of year.
Background:
Since 2010, the remains of five people who went missing in Edmonton have been discovered on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River in eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan as a direct result of air searches.
There are currently 27 missing people who have been reported to RCMP, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat Detachments located in communities along the Bow and Oldman River. Two of them are known to have entered the river and have never been located.
Calgary Police Service currently has several ongoing investigations in which the missing person is believed to have entered the Bow River which flows down into the South Saskatchewan River.