BANFF – A crew of volunteer search teams, friends and family of Yannick Bastien continue to search for their loved one last seen on Lake Minnewanka.
The 26-year-old from Airdrie had plans to take his canoe out of the lake, located 129 km west of Calgary on September 21st, and has not been heard from since.
Banff RCMP recovered his truck and red canoe at Lake Minnewanka but there was no sign of Bastien.
In a statement to CTV News, the Bastien family said the search effort has been extensive:
Over the past three weeks we have conducted ground searches, helicopter searches, boat, cadaver dogs along with two different sonar teams searching the bottom of the lake and a volunteer dive team.
On the afternoon of Saturday September 28th we had been led to believe that he could be in the water after a cadaver dog picked up a scent. However after an extensive search in the water over the past week and a half with no evidence of this, we as a family decided it was time to search the ground again while also continuing our searches in the water.
Another call out on Facebook was made and today October 12th we have restarted the ground searches focusing on the south side of the lake and currently have approximately 20 active hikers.
This has been a very difficult and emotional time for our family and we are extremely grateful for all the help we have received throughout this process.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family with some of the costs they've accumulated during the past three weeks.
