Editor's note: This article has been updated from the original published on March 30 to include the most recent information from RCMP.
MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — A search and rescue operation for a 73-year-old Calgary male reported missing from a Bergen-area property has ended.
Police report this afternoon (March 31) that Harvey Peter Pyra was located on his rural property deceased.
"The RCMP extend their condolences to the family of Harvey and wish to thank the Sundre and Mountain View Search and Rescue teams for their assistance," said a news release.
Didsbury RCMP issued a press release earlier today that the last contact with Harvey Peter Pyra was the morning of Saturday, March 27. Pyra was doing chores on his rural property in the area of Twp. Rd. 320, also known as Bergen Road, and Rge. Rd. 45 in Mountain View County.
Members of the Didsbury RCMP detachment with assistance from a Sundre officer, as well as Police Dog Services from Red Deer, RCMP Air Services, and plenty of search and rescue volunteers had been searching yesterday and this morning for the man who was reported missing.
Roger Tetreault, Sundre Search and Rescue (SAR) senior search manager who assisted with planning and logistics, said they initially received the call for help at about 6 a.m. on March 30, and arrived at around 8:30 a.m.
“We have 18 SAR members from Sundre and the Mountain View, which is the Didsbury teams,” Tetreault said near their mobile command centre during an interview at the scene, located in the Mountain View County area near Twp. Rd. 320 and Rge. Rd. 45 in the Bergen area southeast of Sundre.
“That’s pretty good for getting people out of bed first thing in the morning — an 18 person turnout is really good for a weekday,” he said, grateful for essentially ideal weather conditions that followed on the heels of a late-season blizzard the days before.
At the time he spoke with The Albertan after 2 p.m. on March 30, Tetreault reported there had not yet been any “good evidence, no sightings or anything found.”
Teams of two are more easily able to search fenced in coral areas, but the effort to comb through a treed in area to the south of the property would prove more challenging.
“That’s a big area, pretty dense. It’s going to take pretty much all of our resources,” he said.
During the time of the interview, some of the volunteers were taking a break after a hard day’s search.
“Fresh members are showing up as we speak,” he said, as a vehicle arrived and parked.
“We’ll get some fresh legs out there. It’s warm out, and we’ve got daylight now until 7:30 almost 8 o’clock, so we should be able to make some pretty good headway today.”
The clear skies and sunny weather were almost a saving grace compared to the weather over the past couple of days prior.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to be out here on Sunday. That would have been absolutely miserable,” he said about blizzard conditions, which of course substantially complicate search efforts.
“You can’t see where you’re going, you can’t see where you’ve been — your tracks are covered up as quick as you make them, so you end up duplicating efforts. That’s where GPS comes in.”
But the near-perfect conditions — with the exception of some deep snowdrifts that were left in the wake of the storm, some of which had to be checked with poles just to be sure — facilitated search and rescue efforts, he said.
Tetreault urges people to make sure they always tell someone else where they’re going, what they’re up to, and when they intend to be back.
“He was by himself, but people did know what he was up to, where he was. They were able to come check on him pretty quick,” he said.
The missing male is understood to have been visiting a weekend property.
“He came out to check on the horses,” said Tetreault.
Whether they will pull up stakes after nigthfall and resume the search tomorrow hinges largely on discussions later in the day depending on how the situation unfolds, he said.
“If we’re confident we’ve covered a 100 per cent of the prime areas, then it kind of kicks it down a notch,” he said.
“A productive search in the dark would be difficult. So, we would probably start first thing in the morning again with some fresh bodies and fresh legs.”
Tetreault reported this morning (Wednesday, March 31), that the search effort resumed with assistance from an RCMP Air Services helicopter.
