Search and rescue crews are combing a southern Alberta river for a man who slipped into the rapidly flowing water near a campground on the weekend.
Justin McNeil, 19, was camping near Nature's Hideaway Campground east of Okotoks with friends when he slipped into the Highwood River and disappeared on Sunday afternoon.
Friends say he was sitting on a rock around 7:00 p.m. when he stood up and slipped in.
Search and rescue crews and Okotoks and Turner Valley RCMP started a search on Sunday but the river was too high to continue.
Crews and friends continued the search at 5:00 a.m. Monday and HAWCS was also brought in to search the area.
McNeil was with his girlfriend and four others at the time and they are holding out hope that he survived but police say it doesn’t look good.
“I think there’s a good potential that he could have drowned, I mean there’s so much debris in the water it would take nothing for a log to hit him. He may have been knocked unconscious,” said RCMP Corporal Sharon Franks.
“We’ve been searching the river. We went all the way down this side, Then we found a way to get over to the other side and go all the way down. So I’ve been checking the banks just in case and we’re just hoping for the best,” said friend, Charilyn Grenkow.
Police say extensive patrols were conducted of the area and about 10 kms downstream and so far have failed to turn up the missing man.
(With files from Jamie Mauracher)
