The search continued Thursday for a 67-year-old woman missing in or near the Cowichan River.
RCMP divers combed key areas of the river during the day with help from Cowichan Search and Rescue, said Sgt. Wes Olsen, the Lake Cowichan RCMP detachment commander.
Crews had searched the land as well as the water on Wednesday, he said. It was the first full day of the search effort after the body of an 84-year-old man, the woman’s partner, was found in the river near Skutz Falls. An inflatable boat the woman was seen in was found near the falls.
“The land search consisted of primarily the river banks on both sides of the river from where the couple had last been seen above the falls,” Olsen said. “It also went below the falls downstream, past even where the body of the 84-year-old man was discovered.”
He said ground crews went to a point where it appeared the water was too shallow for a body to have been swept any farther.
A police dog helped in the search and a helicopter was in the air for about an hour, Olsen said. He said Thursday’s search effort was “smaller-scale.”
“We focused our efforts in the pool areas at the base of the falls, and farther down.”
There are underwater caves and crevices near the falls that could trap a body, Olsen said.
The deceased man and the missing woman are residents of the Cowichan Valley, but do not live in Lake Cowichan. Efforts are still being made to find next of kin.
The Skutz Falls area has posed difficulties for searchers in the past.
“In the exact area where the members are searching right now, there was a local man who went missing there several years ago who’s never been found,” Olsen said.
