Family of missing man launches search and rescue operation in Manning Park
Vancouver police called off the official search for missing software developer Jordan Naterer on Saturday
Speaking from a makeshift control centre in a guest room at the Manning Park Lodge, Greg Naterer says family and volunteers are doing everything they can to find his son Jordan.
"We've hired drones. It's a B.C.-based company. They've done this type of work several times before and they have found a missing person," he said. "I'm effectively an incident commander managing the team here, getting hundreds of emails and critical information."
Jordan Naterer, 25, was reported missing Oct. 13 when he didn't show up for Thanksgiving dinner with friends. It was determined later he had gone hiking in Manning Park, 200 kilometres east of Vancouver where he lives. His car was found parked near the Frosty Mountain trailhead.
Today's search will see drones do an aerial scan of an area south of the Frosty Peak where Jordan's hat and glasses were found on Sunday. Greg Naterer hopes the thermal imaging equipment will arrive on site Wednesday to add another tool to the search. Dog teams and a helicopter are also being brought in.
About a dozen ground volunteers were also on the mountain Tuesday, picking up where the search and rescue professionals left off on Saturday when the Vancouver Police Department called the operation down.
Because the VPD received the original missing person report, it is the lead investigative organization in the case.
The Naterers are being helped by Jordan's colleagues at jSonar, a company he started working at as a software developer this past summer after graduating from UBC.
Today we start drone sweeps ourselves for Jordan without <a href="https://twitter.com/VancouverPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VancouverPD</a> help - for days we requested records of past SAR work done, areas traversed, map of probabilities, bread crumb trails of SAR assets, but haven't yet received it - also we need dogs, expert hikers, trackers asap <a href="https://t.co/HD9nW2nYAX">pic.twitter.com/HD9nW2nYAX</a>
—@GregNatererIn just four hours, the company raised over $31,000 internally for the private search effort, half of it put forward by a single person.
"Yesterday we said, OK, we have to do something," said jSonar manager Yuval Hager. "We just wanted to show our support and give the family the option to [hire] any resource they can."
Hager said Jordan often talked about the hikes he had either gone on or was planning.
Meanwhile, the Naterer family continues to plead with Vancouver police to restart the official search, or at least share details of where search teams have already been.
"They said they would reactivate if there was any further new information or clues. We did send them new clues a few days ago ... and still, we haven't heard back from the VPD on this," said Greg Naterer.
VPD spokeswoman Const. Tania Visintin told CBC police intend to share details of their search with the family.
"The delay is due to the size and volume of files," she said. "Search and Rescue are compiling the hundreds of hours searched onto a map and that information will be provided to the family once it's compiled.
Visintin said a new tip line for leads on Jordan's disappearance has been set up at 604-717-2530.