Frances Brown’s family has made the difficult decision to call off the search for her, for now.
The 53-year-old has been missing since Oct. 14. She went missing in the Kitseguecla Lake Road area after failing to return to her meeting place after mushroom picking with her cousin.
Smithers RCMP called off their search after a week of looking, which included over 20 different search and rescue teams from around the province. A community search picked up where they left off shortly after and continued to comb the area. However, since the weather has been getting colder and more snowy, the family decided to hold off looking for her until the spring for the safety of the volunteers.
Brown’s nephew David DeWitt said it was a very difficult decision for the family.
“A number of factors came into play but there was a lot of gratitude expressed to all the volunteers from all the communities that helped with the search,” he said. “Due to weather conditions and other factors, the family did make the decision to suspend the search.”
The base camp at 17 km on Kitseguecla Lake Road has been taken down and cleaned up.
DeWitt said a few people are still looking.
“The family wanted to make sure their call was to suspend it and there is no obligation to continue,” he said. “People are related and there are deep desires to bring Frances home so some people are continuing on their own in a safe and coordinated way.”
DeWitt added there has been an account opened up at Bulkley Valley Credit Union called ‘Bring Frances Home’ if there is anyone wanting to help financially in the search efforts that will start up in the spring.