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    Missing boater feared dead - RCMP

    Roxanna Thompson
    Northern News Services
    Published Monday, July 28, 2008

    ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD - Efforts are still underway on the Liard River to find a missing boater.

    Jim Paul Klondike, 33, was reported missing on July 13. He was operating the outboard motor on an 18-foot homemade skiff travelling from Blackstone Territorial Park to Nahanni Butte.

    One of two passengers sleeping in the front of the boat looked back at 4 p.m. and realized Klondike was gone, said Const. Eric Latwaitis, the investigating officer from the Fort Liard detachment.

    "It sounds like he fell overboard," Latwaitis, said.

    At that point the people in the boat started a search and were joined by two other boats in the area.

    The RCMP detachment in Fort Liard was contacted a few hours later and officers arrived at the Blackstone Territorial Park that night, he said. On Monday, the RCMP along with volunteers from Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte began searching the river at the park and moving towards Fort Simpson.

    Members of the Fort Simpson RCMP detachment along with staff from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources worked towards them on the river from the other direction.

    Approximately 35 people in nine boats were involved in the search and continued looking on July 15 while a helicopter was also used to scan the banks for signs that Klondike had made it out of the river.

    On the July 15 the search became a recovery operation.

    "Chances are he hasn't survived," said Latwaitis.

    Community members were still searching on July 21.

    Another helicopter flight was scheduled for July 22 to scan the river.

    "Every effort is still going to be continued to recover him," Latwaitis said.

    Recovery efforts will be ongoing dependent on weather conditions, he said.

    "The community has been quite dedicated to this," said Latwaitis.

    Klondike was originally from Fort Liard but moved to Nahanni Butte several years ago.