'I want her home': Searchers scour woods for woman, 84, who went missing while picking berries

An urgent search is underway for a missing 84-year-old woman who became separated from her friend in southeastern Manitoba while picking berries.

"At this point, it's very dire because now we're past 24 hours and she is elderly, so it is getting past that point," said Stephen Rear, a RCMP officer trained in search and rescue missions.

Mary Byman was last seen on Wednesday afternoon, around 4 p.m., in an area west of Piney, Man.

She has an arrangement with a friend where they pick berries on their own and blow a whistle to leave the bush and meet at the car when they're ready, her daughter Roxanne Byman said.

Her mother never made it to the car.

"I'm trying very hard not to be too worried, but it's been over a day now," Roxanne said Thursday evening.

Around 100 volunteers, many of them trained in search and rescue, descended on the Spur Woods area, south of Provincial Road 201 and eight kilometres west of Piney, approximately 125 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, on Thursday.

The extensive ground search, covering an estimated 65 square kilometres, has been aided by a plane and drone in the air, but there has been no sign of the elderly woman, Rear said.

The terrain is a mix of a tangled mass of fallen trees and overgrown ravines, Rear explained, both of which are tough to navigate.

Stan Goodman, the missing woman's brother-in-law, was fighting back tears Thursday night after searching for hours.

"It's tough," he said. "She's gone through a lot."

He said the area is tough walking because of the tangled mass of fallen vegetation on the ground.

'We should have found her'

"It's like looking for a deer, we've done that all our life," Goodman said. "We can't see tracks. We're just checking in areas that she might have crawled into — we're close enough together. Where we went, we should have found her."

Roxanne Byman said her mother has medications to take. She's likely hungry and without water.

"I want her home. I want her home and I want her to be well, and I don't want to think of anything else, just that she come home."

RCMP say Byman has limited mobility and is hard of hearing.

She was last seen wearing a long-sleeved blue-and-white checked blouse and may have made her way to the highway, police say.  

Police are asking anyone who may have seen her to contact the Sprague RCMP detachment immediately at 204-437-2041.  

Search efforts will continue Friday morning at 8 a.m. just east of Menisino, along Provincial Road 201. Volunteers are asked to sign in with the Office of the Fire Commissioner on site.