News article from the Terrace Standard
Aage Engholm Two family members perish in separate road accidents
ONE OF the biggest search efforts in several years ended with the discovery of the body of a man missing from Kitwanga for four days last week.
The body of Aage Engholm, 81, was found inside his red SUV in a pond-like slough off Hwy16, east of Terrace, May 17.
“It was probably one of our most active ones (searches) over the years,” said Dave Jephson of Terrace Search and Rescue.
Engholm had left his Kitwanga home at 2:30 p.m. May 13 for the drive to Terrace to attend the funeral step grandson Alan Degerness. Degerness, 46, was killed May 9 just west of Kitwanga when the motorcycle he was driving left Hwy16 and entered a ditch.
Engholm was heading back to Terrace, his sister-in-law said, and it is a trip he makes often as he has homes in both Terrace and Kitwanga, but when he failed to make the funeral on May 15 the family knew something was terribly wrong.
Jephson said search and rescue members were out looking for four days after police called for the group’s assistance.
Engholm’s extended family was looking for him with Kitwanga relatives walking west toward Terrace and Terrace relatives walking east.
A family member of Engholm’s from Kitwanga found the vehicle, while walking the road and checking possible hiding spots, about 10 minutes before search and rescue arrived May 17, said Jephson.
He flagged down search and rescue and told them he found the vehicle submerged under about a foot under water, said Jephson.
Fresh tire tracks could be seen leaving the highway down about 15 feet into the ditch and, further in toward the slough area, the red roof of the vehicle was visible, said Jephson.
Search and rescue and water rescue were ready to assist with retrieving the vehicle but the RCMP called in its dive team instead, he said.
Several groups and people were involved in the search, said Jephson.
Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), another branch of search and rescue, were involved with the aerial search and brought in its members, including trained spotters, from Burns Lake and Smithers.
Trained spotters are always required when an air search goes on, he said.
The air search continued for three days and then the RCMP plane came in from Prince Rupert but neither plane found anything from the air, he said.
“On Monday, we weren’t looking for a red car anymore, we were looking for branches broken, tire tracks, the undercarriage of a car,” he said.
Search and rescue used its two new rhinos in its efforts too.
“As the search managers, we’re pleased with the participation from search and rescue and the other agencies, the police, other search and rescue groups, CASARA, the support from the Hazelton detachment and their officers, which were very professional, very courteous and the family,” said Jephson.
“The family was huge in all of it, very supportive with everything.”
Spokesperson Const. Cindy Nunes of Terrace RCMP said that weather conditions, road conditions and the vehicle itself had been ruled out as contributing factors to the accident, as told to her by Sgt. Don Murray of the local highway patrol.
