By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
A second RCMP dive team arrives at noon today to take over the search for the missing Oliver man who first went missing in Osoyoos Lake on July 25 and is presumed drowned.
Osoyoos RCMP Sgt. Jason Bayda told the Times Chronicle that a second team from the RCMP’s E-Division Underwater Recovery Team (URT) is spelling off the first team and will be arriving around noon today.
RCMP dive team joins search for man missing in Osoyoos Lake
“We did not have any success in locating him while they were here,” Bayda said. “We did an extensive and thorough search of the area that the witness believes he went down in, we are pretty confident he is not in that area.”
This included the use, on Saturday July 30, of an RCMP helicopter out of Kelowna which Bayda says he requested to scan the perimeter of the lake.
Bayda noted it’s “very difficult” to gauge distance from shore when you’re out on the water.
The 41-year old Oliver man, now identified on social media by friends and family as Tom Dennehy is still missing and presumed drowned in Osoyoos Lake after going to the aid of his distressed dog on Monday night.
“Hopefully we’ll have more success, the second dive team is bringing some different equipment so that they can search deeper waters.”
Instead of the drop sonar that was used the first time, the second team is coming with a side-scanning sonar which has the capability to go deeper and because it’s towed, the process is faster and a larger area can be covered.
The new search will essentially enlarge the existing search area and Bayda adds that the second team may recover the existing area that was searched or they may just work on an enlarged area.
“I’m optimistic but I’m also realistic that we don’t always find them. But I’m optimistic, whether our team finds him or not, someone will find him and I’m not going to give up on this,” Bayda said.
