Risking life and limb to find missing people
Risking life and limb to find missing and dead is Ettiene Gerber’s mission
He has spent 17 years diving into freezing water, navigating perilous rapids and rappelling down sheer cliffs — all for the sake of bringing hope or closure to the loved ones of missing people across the Eastern Cape.
When asked why he risks life and limb on a daily basis, Warrant Officer Ettiene Gerber simply shrugs his shoulders and smiles.
“I just do my job,” Gerber, 45, said.
And when receiving praise for every life saved or body recovered, he quickly deflects the honours, heaping it on his colleagues, those with whom they collaborated and, most of all, his trusty sidekick for the past three years, Misty.
Misty, a six-year-old police dog, has been specially trained in the recovery of people and human remains.
She is capable of following a scent across all terrains, and even sniffing out decomposing bodies under water.
“Everything we do revolves around missing people,” Gerber said.
“Whether the person is alive and we can rescue them, or whether their chances of survival have diminished and we need to recover a body, we spare no effort to find them and return them to their loved ones.”
Misty’s nose in the past led them to a severely dehydrated, mentally ill man in the bushes on the outskirts of Motherwell, after he had been missing for three days.
They were also instrumental in finding the body of a suicide victim who tied a tyre to his feet before jumping into the Gqeberha harbour.
Despite the countless hours of dangerous operations, Gerber says one of their most recent missions — recovering the body of a suicide victim from the bottom of the Storms River gorge on Monday — was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of his career.
“I have rappelled down many cliffs and bridges before, and every time taking that first step over the ledge, leaning back and trusting a rope to save you from falling to your death, still makes me nervous.
“And this time, dangling from the Storms River Bridge, 120m above sharp rocks and foaming rapids, really put butterflies in my stomach,” Gerber said.
Once at the bottom, the team still had to trek 2km downstream to find the body of the 69-year-old Jeffreys Bay man who had jumped from the bridge two days earlier, before carrying his body out from the bottom.
Last month, Gerber and Misty also found the burnt and mutilated remains of gay man Andile Ntuthela, 41, who was buried in a shallow grave outside murder accused Luvuyo Jonas’s house in KwaNobuhle.
And in September 2020, the pair rescued a one-year-old child who went missing in the orange groves in Hankey.
Asked about the highlights of his illustrious career, Gerber said it was difficult to pinpoint a specific case, but that finding someone alive, when all hope of survival had faded, would always be a huge win.
“Recovering a body and giving a family closure is a great feeling.
But nothing beats the feeling of finding someone alive and bringing them back to their loved ones.
“And being a father myself, it is especially satisfying when you can reunite missing children with their families.”
Gerber is one of just seven specialised search-and-rescue police members in the province, and is trained for specialised diving and climbing operations as well.
Of the seven members, he is one of just five who work with a trained search-and-rescue dog.
And when the two of them are not saving lives, they are honing their skills and preparing for the next mission.
“We are constantly training, staying fit and staying sharp, because you never know when the next call will be coming,” Gerber said.