Grim hunt for a tiny body: Volunteers search for boy lost in river weeks ago
KITCHENER — When you are looking for human remains, the instructions are to the point and grim.
Lisa Mellon of Kitchener knows all about it. She’s been leading teams of volunteers searching for the remains of three-year-old Kaden Young, who was pulled into cold, rushing waters of the Grand River more than five weeks ago.
“If you guys find anything, anything at all that you think has something to do with this, do not touch it,” Mellon told a group of volunteer searchers who gathered Friday morning on the Walter Bean Trail off Riverbend Drive.
About 30 volunteers searched the banks along the Grand River between Lancaster and Victoria streets.
In the cold, damp air they listened to Mellon explain how line searches are conducted, and what they should do if they find anything.
“No pictures are allowed to be taken. You come and get me or the other team leader. We will take a picture,” said Mellon. “So we are looking for Kaden’s clothing, anything to do with kids’ stuff, toys, anything you think might have come out of the van.”
Kaden was riding in a van with his mother, Michelle Hanson, around 1 a.m. on Feb. 21 on a rural road near Grand Valley. With spring floods, the water was rushing over the road. There was a barrier up saying the road was closed. But Hanson drove around the barrier, trying to make it past the water.
The van was pushed into the river. The mother freed herself and Kaden, and headed for shore. But the fast water pulled her boy out of her arms, and he has not been seen since.
After five weeks of looking, the searchers are now walking the river banks in Kitchener — at least 45 kilometres south of where Kaden was last seen.
With rakes, hoes and small shovels, they pull apart tangled bunches of dead grass, twigs, branches and logs.
They are told to look up into the trees, two metres above the ground, where the flood waters pushed stuff into branches that are now high and dry.
Mellon had specific instructions for anyone who thinks they have found Kaden’s remains.
“Just turn your back. I know it’s hard, but try not to look. Just turn your back and yell ‘contact,’ and we ask the
other searchers to turn around and face away from it. Myself or the other team lead will be calling the OPP,” said Mellon.
“If you do find something, don’t touch it, don’t move it, just call for the team lead,” said Mellon.
Mellon urges anyone interested in volunteering to check out the Facebook event page called “Bring Kaden Home.”
Anyone interested in helping out can also send her a personal message on Facebook, she said.
Among the 30 volunteers Friday morning was Stacey La France of Cambridge. She heard about the searches organized by Mellon through Facebook.
“This little boy needs to be found,” said La France.
La France does not take the job lightly, and has thought about the impact of finding a little body that’s been in fast-flowing water for weeks.
“I have totally prepared myself for whatever happens,” said La France. “I’ve got tons of support lined up, just in case, so I am prepared.
“If he is to be found, I would rather it be me than his family,” La France said.
“I know his aunts and uncles are out looking, friends of the family, his dad is out on the search.
“So I would rather it is someone who is involved, but not attached.”