Two months after Jordan Naterer vanished on a mountain in Manning Park, his mother refuses to give up the search for her son, or her hope that he will be found alive.
“I know the child that I raised and I know that he is a survivor,” mother Josie Naterer said in an interview from her St. John’s home.
“I wake up every morning knowing that my son is trying to find us.”
The family is so certain in fact, they have hired a private ambulance and helicopter waiting on standby for when he is found.
Jordan, a 25-year-old electrical engineer from Vancouver, was last seen Oct. 10 when he left for an overnight solo hike at Manning Park.
A credit card receipt from that day indicates he bought coffee at the resort, and the last ping from his cellphone places him on Windy Joe Mountain.
After he failed to return for a Thanksgiving dinner with friends, police were called who discovered his car in the Lightning Lake parking lot.
Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) co-ordinated with police in a search that was eventually called off due to weather on Oct. 17, with the belief that all search avenues were exhausted.
That effort was rebooted for one day a week later, and again called off for weather, pending new information about Jordan’s location.
Related: Family devastated as search for missing Manning Park hiker suspended
“When police and GSAR say, ‘That’s it,’ it’s not it for the family,” said Josie.
The Naterer family and Jordan’s friends then organized extensive search efforts on their own, employing helicopters, drones, various search-from-air technologies, and a private search and rescue group.
As recent as Thursday, Dec. 10, volunteers and professional searches were on the mountain, combing for clues to point to Jordan’s location.
Josie believes Jordan is hurt, sheltering somewhere waiting for help.
Related: ‘Please pray for our son,’ says mother of missing hiker
Earlier this week, drone video footage, which is constantly being reviewed by volunteers, located an old mine shaft in one of the search areas.
It was investigated without success.
Tom Belanger, an experienced hiker and tracker, engaged a seven-day hike looking for clues to Jordan, beginning Nov. 30.
In a Facebook post upon his return Belanger said: “I’m alive and well. Been a long trek through some of the most dangerous terrain I’ve encountered. I’m not giving up yet. I will be regrouping with my support team to go through more files and resupply with supplies and gear before I head back out.”
Private search efforts can cost up to $10,000 a day, and a Gofundme page was established early in the search to support those efforts.
To date it has raised $137,152.
Volunteers are still being recruited to search. Anyone who can help is asked to contact Jean-Francois Pageau through the Help Find Jordan Facebook page.
Josie said she and her family are “tremendously grateful” to the volunteers and experts who have come forward, which include former military personal and off-duty RCMP officers.
“There are so many people who are out there… to bring Jordan home,” Josie said.
Jordan’s family has constructed a map showing areas that have been checked and, in the red circles, places that still need to be searched. Image contributed
