King’s Outdoor World Blog

Help Needed from Hunters

August 17th, 2006 David King - King's Outdoor World

I received this press release yesterday and finally got around to reading it this morning and thought this was very important to get out to as many as possible. It is truly a disheartening story. If you are headed to Northwestern British Columbia please read this.

August 16, 2006

Family and friends of missing hunter Tom Leonard of Quesnel are renewing their appeal to all hunters, guides, and outfitters operating in the Spatsizi plateau Provincial Wilderness Park for any help in locating the husband and father of two.

Tom Leonard failed to return from a fall hunting trip in Northwestern British Columbia at Spatsizi Plateau Provincial Wilderness Park last October. Tom signed in at the Eaglenest Trail Head on September 11, 2005 and continued by backpacking on his limited entry sheep hunt. When he failed to return home as planned on October 2, 2005, RCMP conducted a search and located his truck at the base of the mountain at Eaglenest Trail. Search and rescue was called in and they conducted a search using aircraft and ground trackers but there was no trace of the missing man. Due to weather conditions the search was called off on October 8, 2005, and the family was reassured that a recovery operation would be conducted in the spring when weather conditions permitted.

In late June, an extensive one week voluntary search was conducted by family and friends searching various areas of the park. Again poor weather hampered the search.

In mid July, and RCMP air search was conducted for 5 days but again failed to produce any answers.

On August 15th the Spatsizi Wilderness Park will be open to hunters. The family is asking all hunters, guides, and outfitters in the area to please report anything that is found and the exact area it was found in to the RCMP immediately in Dease Lake at (205) 771-4111. Since this area is so massive and rugged the family is in need of any help they can get to locate their loved one.

For further information, please contact Bruce Gordon at (250) 747-1742 or Kevin Christieson at (250) 992-9584.

Thank you for your cooperation regarding this matter.

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