Military help eyed as search continues for five-year-old in southern Alberta

CROWSNEST PASS – Rescuers in southern Alberta are looking at bringing in reinforcements from the military in their search for a missing five-year-old boy who vanished Sunday from a campground.

The hum of helicopters echoed through the Crowsnest Pass area in the southwest Alberta Rockies on Wednesday, as about 100 searchers scoured the wilderness more than three kilometres from the campsite where Darius Macdougall and his family had been staying.

Adam Kennedy from Alberta Search and Rescue said talks with the Armed Forces and other groups have focused on which resources would benefit efforts to find the boy.

“Our emergency co-ordination centre out of Leduc is in constant consultation with all resources that might be able to provide support to the search, with Canadian Armed Forces being one of those,” Kennedy told a virtual news conference.

“That conversation continues as to what assets they may have that might benefit the search effort.”

He added that teams were to double their search radius overnight to more than six kilometres.

Crews spent the day searching nearby waterways and forest close to the Alberta-B.C. boundary.

“Based on consultation with a couple of leading Alberta physicians on wilderness medicine, we are working on the assumption that Darius is very much alive,” Kennedy said, adding there were no plans to abandon the search.

The Island Lake Campground is located in the middle of sprawling backcountry between two steep-sloped mountains, a 15-minute drive from Coleman and Blairmore, a pair of quiet mining towns.

The entrance to the campground was closed off to the public, as support vehicles including quads, search-and-rescue pickups and a truck carrying a large satellite tower drove in and out.

Searchers, some called in from out of province, have been on rotating shifts and sleeping at a nearby Bible camp. Several declined to talk to reporters Wednesday.

RCMP have said the autistic boy from Lethbridge, Alta., didn’t return from a walk with six young family members to their campsite.

Police have not said exactly how the boy lost contact with the group but that there doesn’t appear to be criminal activity.

Mounties were hoping to better understand what happened through ongoing interviews with family members, said Cpl. Gina Slaney.

“Hopefully we’ll have a little bit better of an understanding in the hours to come,” she said.

Slaney added the boy is verbal but may not respond well to rescuers calling his name.

She said the boy’s family is getting support from victim impact services and has asked for privacy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.

— With files from Aaron Sousa in Edmonton