Several of missing 23-year-old Dustin Steele’s family and friends spent the day on an embankment along the Skeena River watching as Terrace Search and Rescue volunteers attempted to pull the truck Steele was last seen in onto the river’s shore.
The truck was located by searchers yesterday, not far from where it went in the river on the Copper River flats area east of Terrace Saturday evening before being swept away by the current.
Strong winds and freezing rain didn’t help today’s intensive operation to recover the truck. Search and rescue, with trained volunteers and area RCMP worked together to try to pull the truck out of the river.
A jetboat with SAR personnel and divers rode out to the truck’s location in the middle of the river, attaching cables that were then secured to a large excavator waiting on shore, which would pull the truck closer to shore. A tow truck was also on scene, but by mid-afternoon, the truck had still not been recovered from the water.
Steele was last seen in the back of a blue 2013 Ford F150 pickup truck floating downstream around 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1 evening, reported Terrace RCMP.
Their investigation has determined he was with two men, both of whom made it to shore, and the investigation is also determining why the men were on the flats.
One of the men, a 25-year-old “who was with Dustin at the truck was arrested for obstruction on November 3rd and released the same day on conditions,” confirmed Const. Angela Rabut this afternoon.
Family and friends of Steele’s from Alberta, where Steele is from, have been here for days searching the Copper Flats area along with Terrace SAR and area RCMP. Steele was in the area working in Kitimat building a hotel.
