The search for Chase Martens: Wind, snow hinder expanded efforts

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This article was published 25/03/2016 (3544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NORTH NORFOLK, Man. — The search for Chase Martens was expanded to a four-kilometre radius around the missing toddler’s rural home as hundreds of volunteers and professional emergency workers spent a fourth day scouring semi-frozen fields, shallow wetlands and broken stands of aspen straddling two central Manitoba municipalities.

Chase, just two years old, was last seen at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday outside his family’s home near the border of North Norfolk and WestLake-Gladstone, an agricultural area dotted with dugouts and crisscrossed by creeks that flow to the Whitemud River.

Efforts to locate Chase on Tuesday evening, Wednesday and Thursday involved Manitoba RCMP, military personnel from Shilo, the Winnipeg Police Service’s canine and helicopter units, central Manitoba fire crews, Hutterite colony residents, members of Winnipeg’s Bear Clan Patrol and hundreds of other volunteers.

On Friday, the RCMP also deployed search-and-rescue drones to systematically map the terrain around the Martens household. One of the unmanned aerial vehicles with “advanced mapping capabilities” was brought in from Saskatchewan, RCMP Sgt. Bert Paquet said in a statement.

400 volunteers Friday

Some of the drones have infrared capabilities, “but I do not believe we are using this option at this time,” Paquet said.

Instead, the data collected by the drones allows search-and-rescue specialists to co-ordinate grid-pattern search efforts by volunteers who’ve now spent days trudging across soggy topsoil, negotiating deadfall and wading through icy seasonal ponds. More than 400 volunteers turned out on Friday, which began with overcast skies and a brisk north wind and a fresh deposit of snow that complicated efforts to find footprints or items of clothing.

The volunteers are bused out of a search-and-rescue command centre at the Martens home, located between Pine Creek and Road 72 North, where the RCMP have set up a security checkpoint. The RCMP deployed an underwater recovery team to search creeks and sloughs inside the search area on Thursday, but focused on land all day Friday. 

“At this time, we will continue to search, day and into the evenings, and like (Thursday) night shutting down for a few hours in order to allow trained searchers to rest, before resuming their search every morning,” Paquet said, late Friday afternoon, as the sun began to cast long shadows on the search-and-rescue area.

The RCMP may redeploy the underwater team if search-and-rescue coordinators deem it necessary to search creeks or sloughs once more. Paquet said it was possible for the toddler to walk to Pine Creek, though the bush is dense between his home and the waterway.

‘If someone has our son, please bring him home’

Before Chase disappeared on Tuesday, he was in the yard with his father, who had been loading his truck. Both came inside and then his dad dressed the toddler in his boots, splash pants, hat and mitts. The boy went outside as his dad went inside.

Chase’s mother last saw her son through the window as she got ready to cook supper. The boy was heading around the side of the house. He has not been seen since, and family, friends and the RCMP searched all night, with no success.

On Thursday afternoon, his parents issued a plea for any information regarding their son.

“If someone has our son, please bring him home,” said Thomas Martens. “We won’t be angry, we will be forgiving and grateful. We are devastated to have our son taken from us.”

It’s unlike Chase to wander off the property, Thomas said, flanked by Destiny Turner.

“We’re overwhelmed with support from the community. Anyone with info, please find it in your hearts to come forward.”

To date, no physical evidence has been found as part of the search for Chase, Paquet said Thursday.

“At this point, we do not have anything to go on,” he said. “Foul play has not been ruled out, but it is not the focus of our investigation. We owe it to the family and the community to keep open minds. But the focus is to locate Chase.”

Not dealing with a confirmed abduction: RCMP

He said issuing an Amber Alert on Tuesday night when RCMP first became involved would not have been required.

“The Amber Alert is designed specifically for confirmed abductions. We are not dealing with a confirmed abduction,” Paquet said.

He said searchers are showing tremendous resolve under trying circumstances.

“Obviously distraught, desperate,” he said. “It is a difficult situation for everyone involved. Most searching are parents themselves. One can only imagine what they are going through the last 36 hours.”

Darryl Contois, a member of the Bear Clan Patrol in Winnipeg, said he was part of a group of 18 volunteers who searched in the dark on Thursday night until high winds during the snowy evening forced search-and-rescue coordinators to call them off for the night.

“Everybody has a kid. What if it was your child? My heart goes out to that family,” Contois said Friday.

No bit of information should be considered insignificant, the RCMP say.

“The entire country right now is thinking of this little boy. We are doing the same,” Paquet added. “If anyone has any kind of information that the question whether or not it should be shared with us, give us a call.” 

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca