Last week, the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team or HEART Team travelled from their home base in Manitoba all the way to Terrace, to try and complete the search for a man who was swept away by the Skeena River.
Thomas Kelly had gone to the river on July 12th to fish, and he has not been seen since then.
Thomas’ wife, Shauna, tried getting help from the K-9 team after the RCMP called off their search, and while they couldn’t help at the time, they did provide her with another solution;
“They had mentioned that the HEART Team was the best in the country at what they do. So I reached out to the HEART Team and since then, I’ve stayed in touch with them throughout our searching. We’ve put together quite a few search efforts throughout the past month and the HEART Team has now finally been able to put together enough days to be able to come.”
The HEART Team’s coordinator, Paul Maendel, went onto explain the main tool the team uses and what they do with it;
“Being an underwater recovery team, we have various sonar. So 90 percent of what we do is imaging.”
Jessica Boston of the Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs, who was assisting with the search, mentioned what her own team utilizes in these kinds of situations;
“We have an ROV, we also have an underwater camera and our first tool is the dogs. Once we get a really good idea of where to search, then we’ll put in those tools. We also have boats but they’re more tailored to the lake.”
The newest social media update from the team said this past Sunday was the final day their two teams could be in Terrace for the search.
Although they have not found him, based on what they’ve seen and experienced beforehand, they are confident that Thomas has surfaced somewhere and are holding onto the hope that they will find him eventually.
Anyone looking to help with the search can do so by donating on the HEART Team’s Facebook page or the gofundme page set up by Shauna Kelly.