Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Monday, April 16, 2007

FORT MCPHERSON - It has been more than six months since William Teya mysteriously disappeared near Fort McPherson.

So far, no clues of his whereabouts have been found.

Sgt. Merle Carpenter of the Fort McPherson RCMP said the case is still open.

However, he said there isn't much that can be done now.

"I think it's considered open for 99 years," he said.

"If any new information comes in, we can add it to the file. There's not a whole lot we can do," he said.

In September and October of last year, dozens of volunteers from Aklavik, Fort Good Hope, Inuvik and Tsiigehtchic travelled to Fort McPherson to help in the search.

They were assisted by RCMP helicopters and police dogs, and scoured nearby waters and woods for more than three weeks.

The RCMP even dragged the bottom of local rivers.

Carpenter said there might be new searches for Teya in the coming months.

However, he said these would most likely be organized by the community, and not the RCMP.

"I don't know what the plans are this summer, I hear some grumblings about how people want to continue the search. I don't know to what extent the RCMP will be conducting further searches," he said. He added that the thawing landscape might allow something to be found.

William Teya was a traditional hunter and trapper, who was the grandson of Chief Julius Salu, who was the chief of the Fort McPherson Tetlit Gwich'in from 1900 to 1948.

He mysteriously vanished on Sept. 21, while it was believed he was somewhere in the vicinity of Eight-Mile Camp.