Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (June 24/05) - It has quickly become Fort Simpson's most troubling mystery.

Two men with extensive bush experience vanished in the North Nahanni last week. As of Tuesday, Fred Hardisty, 61, and David Horesay, 60, had not been seen in eight days.

Searchers have turned up articles of their clothing - a shoe and sock left in the mud - but little else.

"Some family members are very upset and fearing the worst, but some of us think there's still a chance of survival," volunteer Jonas Antoine said prior to departing with a search party on Monday.

Rod Gunderson dropped Horesay and Hardisty off at his well-stocked cabin along the North Nahanni River, approximately 120 kms northwest of Fort Simpson, on June 12.

Gunderson returned in his boat four days later and Horesay and Hardisty were gone, but a fire was burning in front of his cabin. He said he assumed somebody brought the men back to Fort Simpson. He called his wife on a satellite phone to tell her about the blaze and asked her to check around town for Hardisty and Horesay.

Taking flight

The police received the fire and possible missing persons call in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Const. Brad Parker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources responded by chopper later on Friday. The police boarded a helicopter for the North Nahanni on Saturday. A few local volunteers familiar with the mountainous area also went to the site.

A search turned up one man's shoe and sock near a creek bed about four kilometres downstream from the cabin. Wolf and bear tracks have also been spotted nearby, but the men's footprints indicate they were taking a casual walk, not fleeing, Parker noted. The searchers couldn't determine where the men went based on the footprints, he said.

A thermal imaging device, which can detect body heat, was used during an aerial survey on Monday. It was expected to be used again on Tuesday.

Inexplicably, Horesay and Hardisty left food, firearms and cigarettes in the cabin. In addition to the fire in front of the cabin, another had been started down-river. An empty container of fire accelerant was found on the shore.

"I find everything so weird," Gunderson said of the puzzling situation. "Nobody can figure it out."

There is no sign of foul play, according to Parker.

Don Hardisty, a cousin to both men, said he is growing more uneasy each day. The recovered clothing "is not a good sign," he said. He wants to know why a full-scale search and rescue mission didn't begin within 24 hours of the RCMP being notified.

"They should have a massive team out there. What's the problem?" he asked. "These are two local people from Fort Simpson, also being First Nations."

Keyna Norwegian, chief of the LKFN, also questioned the scope and expediency of the RCMP's response.

"For some of our community members to feel that more could have been done, I have to agree," Norwegian said. "I think if it was any other people from the south, isn't it a pretty massive search that takes place immediately?"

Const. Parker said any delay in this case was caused by an initial lack of detail.

"We didn't know until later in the day Friday what was really going on," he explained. "We were brought into this on a cold trail, four or five days after these people were seen. You can't just all of a sudden send a whole pile of people out there on a search not knowing if these people are missing or not."

Band members from Fort Simpson and Wrigley pulled together their own resources on Monday. Close to 20 people have been patrolling the river by boat and scanning the shores. On land, the volunteers have been fanning out and calling in hopes of a response.

It was home

Gunderson said Hardisty and Horesay had been working on his cabin for two to three week stretches during the past five summers.

"They called that home," he said. "They loved it out there."

Norwegian affirmed that the men were dependable carpenters and slashers.

"They're really good workers in the bush," she said. "Hopefully (the searchers will) be able to find them if they're sitting somewhere waiting. They're very well capable of taking care of themselves out on the land."