Saturday, February 13, 2016

Found Too Late

Mr. Daviduk, deceased, was found with his truck sometime Thursday. At the news office, we received the RCMP report that evening.
He was located in a field four miles west of Wadena and one-half mile south, well within the range of the intense and organized ground and air search that had gone on for more than a week and covered a 100-kilometre radius from the town.
Explain that, goddammit.
I was angry, and I'm still angry, under over and around the sad. All that earnest effort; how did we manage to miss him?

10 comments:

  1. How very sad Kate. It is a mystery how he was missed, human error is so discouraging, and in this case, tragic. Condolences to the family and the community.

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    1. I hope we learn some practical lessons from this horrible ending. Like maybe searches such as this should be done on foot and with dogs and on snowmobiles and in a tight grid, not by planes and vehicles that pretty much have to stay on roads. Maybe we could only have covered five or 10 miles around town in this way, but in this case we would have found our missing person.

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    2. That is sad, and I understand your anger. I'm sad that you've turned it on yourself though.

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    3. I haven't turned it on myself. I'm speaking with a generic "we," as in "organized searches." Surely there must be a better way to cover ground more efficiently.

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    4. I was so hoping he would be found alive. Damn! And he was so close.

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    5. It's a relief that he was found, so in that way it was not "too late."
      But far from what we were all hoping for.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks, Teresa. I did not know Mike very well, but he was a good guy and my heart aches for his loved ones.

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  3. I did see the news feed on this. It happens more than we know. The only successful ones are the linked arms and walking. Impossible in poor weather :(
    XO
    WWW

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    1. If something similar should happen again, I guess things will be done differently.
      He may have passed away the first day so that finding him sooner may not have made a difference to the outcome, but still it is a lesson learned, isn't it.
      I wasn't able to attend his funeral on Wednesday but Scott went and they saw Mike out in grand style, it sounds like.
      He was a regular visitor to the news office and universally acknowledged as a nice guy.

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