Body of third Hutterite teenager recovered

A week after her two cousins were found drowned in a southern Alberta river, RCMP have recovered the body of a third missing girl.

About 3 p.m. Thursday, search teams found the body of 17-yearold Naomi Waldner, a member of the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony, in the St. Mary River.

A member of the colony confirmed to Postmedia that two cousins of Naomi, 17-year-old Linda Waldner and 16-year-old Martha Waldner, had drowned in a boating accident, while Naomi had remained missing.

The Spring Valley Hutterite Colony member, who requested to stay anonymous, said the girl’s body was found near Lethbridge, nearly 40 kilometres northeast of where she went missing near the Spring Coulee on the St. Mary River.

RCMP said last week that a group of about 10 people had gone swimming and boating on June 10. Someone had come to pick them up at a designated location around 7:30 p.m. but the three teenage girls had difficulty getting out of the embankment.

On the night of the incident, RCMP said one teenager was located and pronounced dead on scene. Two others were not immediately found. The next day, at about 6:30 a.m., Lethbridge Search and Rescue found the body of a second teen.

When reached Thursday, the member of the colony said the loss had reverberated through the community but that they were glad the search had concluded.