Hundreds searched for missing Yellowknife woman

Hundreds of people in Yellowknife took part in a weekend search for Angela Meyer, a 22-year-old mentally ill woman who has been missing for over six weeks.

Meyer's family organized the unofficial search, in which volunteers scoured Tin Can Hill and the Ptarmigan Road area on Saturday and Sunday.

Searchers scoured an area of about 10 square kilometres over the weekend. So much terrain was covered on Saturday that search efforts were scaled back to 20 participants on Sunday.

"I know Yellowknife — I grew up here — and I know how the people are, and when it's times like this they come together," said Roger Fraser, a close family friend.

"It was a really good turnout and everybody was cooperative. It was just unbelievable."

Volunteers searched through forests and brush for hours on both days, but found no sign of Meyer in the area.

Meyer has been missing since Nov. 27, when she was last seen leaving her family's downtown Yellowknife home. At the time, she was on a weekend pass from Stanton Territorial Hospital's psychiatric ward.

Meyer, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and Type 2 diabetes, had only enough medication to last one weekend, her family said. As well, temperatures dipped below –30 C over the past six weeks.

Family members launched an unofficial search for Meyer after RCMP called off official search efforts on Dec. 21.

The family's search focused on Tin Can Hill and the Ptarmigan Road area because Meyer's coat was found there more than four weeks ago.

Volunteers entered the forest about six metres apart, trying to search in straight lines, but jagged rocks and thick brush made it complicated to maintain a grid.