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'My heart just sunk': Divers find body during search for missing Sagkeeng snowmobilers

A volunteer dive crew is in Manitoba's Sagkeeng First Nation to find two people who disappeared last November while attempting to ride their snowmobile across the river.

HEART dive team found snowmobile in stretch of Winnipeg River near mouth of Lake Winnipeg, chief says

Bryce Hoye · CBC News ·
In November, searchers from Sagkeeng First Nation dragged the open parts of the Winnipeg River in search of the man and woman who disappeared while snowmobiling. A volunteer dive team joined the search after the ice froze over. (Jaison Empson/CBC)

Members of a volunteer dive team pulled a body from the frigid waters of the Winnipeg River as a months-long search for two missing snowmobilers continues in Sagkeeng First Nation. 

Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson confirmed divers with the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team (HEART) recovered the body Wednesday afternoon in the community, not far from where the river and Lake Winnipeg meet.

Henderson said the identity of the person hasn't yet been confirmed, but it is suspected to be one of two snowmobilers who were last seen Nov. 20.

"It was pretty disheartening when I got the news," said Henderson. "My heart just sunk."

Henderson said he called family of the missing man and woman to let them know a body was found Wednesday. 

"It's pretty difficult, but you know, we'll overcome it," he said. "This is a family that needs support and we will be there for them."

A coroner is now expected to examine the body, he added.

The finding comes days after HEART located what they believed to be the snowmobile the missing man and woman were riding.

HEART found the snowmobile Sunday using an underwater camera, said volunteer Paul Maendel.

Manuel Maendel lowers the underwater camera down through a hole in the ice on the Winnipeg River. (Supplied by Paul Mendael)
​

Maendel, who has been volunteering with HEART for about 10 years, credited Minnesota-based Tom Crossman for operating the special camera that helped locate the body.

"He is bringing a lot of expertise to this and without him it wouldn't be possible to do what we're doing," said Maendel, praising an overall "good combination of prayer and technology and volunteers" for the finding.

Members of the HEART dive team and another volunteer look at the images produced by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) as they search for evidence of the two snowmobilers who disappeared in November outside Sagkeeng First Nation. (Submitted by Chief Derrick Henderson)

Henderson has been out with volunteers searching the past four days and plans to join them again Thursday as the search continues. 

Sagkeeng is about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bryce Hoye

Journalist

Bryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist covering news, science, justice, health, 2SLGBTQ issues and other community stories. He has a background in wildlife biology and occasionally works for CBC's Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.

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