Search for boy continues downstream
Police expect fewer volunteers along Grand River as recovery efforts approach one week
Fewer volunteers were expected to turn out on Monday as the search for a missing three-yearold boy who was swept into a river in southwestern Ontario entered its sixth day.
Provincial police say between 300 and 500 volunteers helped out over the weekend in the search, but they expected only 100 or so to take part as the work week resumed. Officers are now combing the area around Belwood Lake, about 13 kilometres downstream from where the boy disappeared into the swollen Grand River last Wednesday near Orangeville, Ont.
Const. Paul Nancekivell, spokesperson for the Dufferin police detachment, said it’s challenging work due to the damage from last week’s flooding, with sheets of floating ice blanketing the water.
“The shoreline has been torn back in several areas — literally rolled back from the ice jamming against the shore. And we have ice chunks up in trees, four or five feet up in the air,” he said.
Nancekivell said police are not officially naming the boy, but attendees at a candlelight vigil for the family last Thursday night identified him as Kaden Young. He was in the family van in the early hours of last Wednesday when the vehicle was swallowed up by the fast-moving river. His mother managed to get the boy out of the van, but lost her grip in the strong current and he was swept downstream.
Nancekivell said police have been in contact with Kaden’s parents daily since the search began.
“It’s tough on them. They’re keeping a brave face and trying to hold up over this,” he said.
“We just want to find this little boy. That’s the bottom line.”
In addition to the difficulties posed by the icy conditions, Nancekivell said police are also dealing with challenges created by some well-meaning volunteers with drones. Police have noticed three private drones in the search area, which Nancekivell said interfered with the force’s own efforts involving a remotecontrolled aircraft.
“It makes it difficult, when we have our drone in the area — plus a helicopter — to worry about three other drones flying around them,” he said.
Nancekivell said police reevaluate their search efforts on a daily basis, which includes a “fulsome discussion” about whether to continue what they’ve seen as a recovery effort — not a rescue mission — since day one.