Two teens drown, third missing
Alberta Hutterite colony mourns; Loss called an ‘absolute tragedy’
Two teenage girls from the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony have drowned in southern Alberta, and RCMP continue to search for a missing third person.
A member of the colony confirmed to Postmedia the deceased are cousins 17-year-old Linda Waldner and 16-year-old Martha Waldner, while 17-year-old Naomi Waldner is still missing.
Colony member George Waldner said the community is in shock.
“Words can’t describe how heavy it is,” he said, adding people from other Hutterite communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan have travelled to the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony to offer support.
“Everybody is tight in the community … relatives show up and everybody comes together.”
Mounties said the incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when Raymond/magrath RCMP and Milk River RCMP responded to a call about a drowning in the area of Spring Coulee on the St. Mary River, northeast of Cardston. In a news release, RCMP said a group of about 10 people had gone swimming and boating earlier that day.
Someone came to pick them up at a designated location around 7:30 p.m. but three teenage girls had difficulty getting out of the embankment. It’s not clear what transpired, said RCMP Cpl. Tammy Keibel.
Waldner said the teenagers were using aluminum boats, just slightly larger than canoes, in the nearby river.
“The river was a little higher, which makes it fun and that’s what young people do,” he said. “But it was a little too aggressive and I don’t think they knew the river was swift like that.”
A man known to the colony said the teenagers had flipped in a boat. One boy, he said, just barely made it out with one of the teenage girls who was unresponsive.
On the night of the incident, RCMP said one teenager was located and pronounced dead on scene. Two others were not immediately found. On Thursday, at about 6:30 a.m., the body of a second teen was found by Lethbridge Search and Rescue.
The Spring Valley Hutterite Colony has a population of just over 100 people.
A man from a neighbouring colony said southern Alberta’s Hutterite communities are tight-knit and rely heavily on their religion.
“The loss here, at this point in time … how do you explain something like that? These young lives are lost. It’s an absolute tragedy,” said the man, who requested to remain anonymous.
“Faith is absolutely going to be our (saving) grace with this. We have to fall back on our faith, because our faith is not what it’s supposed to be if we don’t.”
He said the tragedy will reverberate across Hutterite colonies because many people have relatives and close friends in the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony.
RCMP said Thursday evening that search efforts by Cardston RCMP and RCMP air services continue for the third teenager.