TULITA/FORT NORMAN - Jimmy Klondike was cutting grass out at Fisherman's Lake near Fort Liard two Wednesdays ago when the cell phone on his belt rang. He listened as a Tulita RCMP officer told him they'd found his son, Jim Paul Klondike, who'd disappeared 11 months, eight days ago.

Jim Paul, 33, was operating the outboard motor of a homemade skiff on July 13, 2008, sailing along the Liard River toward Nahanni Butte with two friends when he presumably fell overboard.

Jim Paul Klondike, seen here with his common-law wife Joannie Ekotla of Nahanni Butte, drowned last year in the Liard River. - photo courtesy of Jimmy Klondike

On June 21, nearly a year later, a passerby spotted his body along the shore of the Mackenzie River close to Tulita – hundreds of kilometres away from where he was sailing.

Now, finally, his father knows where his son was.

"They found the wallet; it was his name on it. They found him, they told me," Jimmy said. "That's what we prayed for. We always prayed because he was born on Christmas Day. We prayed hard in the mornings but we couldn't find his body, but we think about him all the time," he said, while gathered with family members waiting for the body to arrive in Fort Liard last Friday.

Jimmy said he felt lucky to be able to spend one last day with his son before the funeral on Saturday.

"He can be over here with us again. We are so happy," he said.

Jimmy said Jim Paul's brothers searched for him until the water froze over, and when the ice broke up in springtime they looked some more.

"It was really hard for us because he was long gone, you know, just about one year."

His father described Jim Paul as hardworking, a good husband and father to his three children.

"Jim Paul was a really good man," Jimmy said, adding that his son was also a talented guitar player and singer.

"We'd always come to visit him at Christmastime and we'd sing together."

Though the NWT coroner's office reported June 30 that Jim Paul died by drowning, Jimmy says he'll still what exactly happened to his son out on the boat that day is still a mystery.

"I wonder what happened to him. It's hard to say."