By David F. Rooney
The RCMP have called off the search for those two missing boaters on Kinbasket Lake.
Allen Healy, 60, of Osoyoos and Mike Murphy, 55, of Mission went missing in a 12-foot aluminium boat on the vast lake-reservoir created by the Mica Dam on July 7. Although a some debris — sandals, boat seats and cooler bag — washed up on shore neither of the men nor their boat had been found by July 17.
“Operations for this search are now concluded,” Staff Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky said in an e-mail to The Current. “The file will remain open.“
Uniformed Mounties, Revelstoke Search and Rescue, BC Hydro and Wester Pacific Marine personnel, as well as members of the missing men’s families, searched the lake by boat and helicopter to no avail.
The RCMP Underwater Dive Team and the Ralston and Associates Underwater Recovery team were also involved in the search with a side-scan SONAR and a robotic submersible but they found nothing. The area of the lake where the two men are believed to have vanished is between 500 and 600 feet deep.
