The Prime Minister says he will do what he can to move the case on a missing man in Manning Park forward, after the search for Jordan Naterer was called off earlier this week.
Search and rescue crews resumed their search for the young man at Manning Provincial Park Thursday morning.
Naterer, a graduate of the University of B.C. student, was last seen on Oct. 10 en-route to the provincial park, located along Highway 3 between Hope and Princeton.
He was reported missing three days later.
The young man has been living in B.C. for two years, but is originally from Newfoundland and Labrador where his parents still live.
As first reported by The Telegram, the prime minister was asked during a virtual meeting with Memorial University if there is anything he can do to nudge the search forward. Naterer’s father, Greg, is the dean of the faculty of engineering and applied science at the university.
Trudeau said the case sparked memories of the search for his own brother who went missing 22 years ago in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. Michel Trudeau was on a backcountry skiing trip in November 1998 when an avalanche swept him off of a ski trail and into Kokanee Lake. Despite search efforts, Michel’s body was never located.
“I can’t personally hear that story and not think about my little brother who was lost almost 25 years ago in beautiful mountains in BC,” Trudeau said. “And the efforts that went into trying to find him, and how I felt when the search was called off.”
“I have no words except deep compassion and thoughtfulness,” the prime minister added.
Trudeau promised he would look into the issue and “what decisions have been made” yet cautioned that he had little leverage, even as prime minister, over a local search.
“But I can certainly ask about it and try and see if there isn’t something I can nudge a little bit,” he said.
Greg and Josie Naterer, Jordan’s mother and father, have been in Manning Park over the past week. They are conducting their own search for their son even after officials suspended the search Oct. 17.
When items the family believes belong to her son were found on Oct. 16, Josie said she flooded the Vancouver Police Department with calls. Their family had been promised, Josie said, that the search would re-start if new information resurfaced.
An online petition asking for the search for Jordan to be restarted, has over 33,000 signatures as of Thursday, Oct. 22. A Gofundme page, started by Jordan’s sister Julia Naterer, has raised $57,000 in two days.
Read more: ‘I am not leaving without my son,’ says mother of missing Manning Park hiker
– with files from Ashley Wahdwani, Andrea Demeer
