Missing girl found in snow face down

REGINA — If the search for a missing girl in a central Saskatchewan hamlet had gone on for just a few hours longer, the outcome might have been tragic, RCMP said Friday.

The 11-year-old girl had stayed at home because she was feeling ill, Mounties said. But when her mother returned to their house in Bankend early Thursday evening, her daughter wasn’t there.

Her mother saw footprints leading from the home and searched the area. When she still couldn’t find her daughter, she called the police.

A team of about 12 people was quickly assembled. Although the girl was dressed for winter, the conditions were worsening and RCMP Cpl. Rob King said time was of the essence: “It was about -15 C but at the time … darkness [was] starting to fall, it was starting to snow.”

RCMP, a conservation officer, highway patrol and local volunteers started scouring the area, trudging through snow looking for any hint of the missing girl.

About two hours in, a local volunteer spotted a set of footprints just outside the search area. The volunteer followed the tracks through an open field, into some light bushes and toward a frozen slough. That’s where he found the girl collapsed facedown in the snow more than six kilometres from Bankend.

She was taken to the hospital in Wynard, Sask., and treated for hypothermia and exposure.