The family of a 50-year-old northern B.C. woman missing since just before Christmas continues to search for their loved one.
Cindy Martin was last seen on the night of December 23 in Hazelton. The vehicle she was driving was found locked with the keys inside near the Hagwilget Bridge. Christmas Day search efforts by Bulkley Valley Search and Rescue personnel and a helicopter failed to locate her in the immediate area.
“It’s so unlike Cindy not to call her mom,” says sister Faye Martin. “She phoned her at least 2 or 3 times a day, and they saw one another almost every day.”
Martin also feels like there wasn’t an effort to search beyond the river and the canyon December 25. She says it’s quite possible that someone picked her up the night she disappeared, noting there was a lot of traffic in the area at the time.
Since then, Cindy’s family and volunteers, including her Uncle, Larry Patsey, have forged ahead with the search on their own, with some limited guidance from the BC Search and Rescue Association.
“We have about half a dozen people that we call to do a ground search in the immediate area, but we don’t want to get too many people out there because, for safety,” says Patsey. “You know, the terrain along the river and the ice and all that, so we didn’t really want to put other people at risk.”
He says winter weather is also complicating search efforts.
“We did ground searching… up until the time the snow started to fall, and now we’ve got quite a bit of snow on the ground and it’s quite difficult to traverse in the bush and stuff,” says Patsey.
CFNR inquired with the RCMP about whether any of the extra police resources in the region to enforce an injunction in Wet’suwet’en territory may be brought in to help with the search.
North District RCMP media spokesperson Corporal Madonna Saunderson confirmed by email that the investigation into Cindy Martin’s disappearance is active and ongoing. But she says “resources here for the enforcement of the injunction will not be used for core policing in the communities.”
Faye Martin wasn’t surprised with the answer. She says that while RCMP have interviewed the family and Cindy’s partner, it doesn’t feel like there is an active plan to find Cindy.
Cindy’s uncle Larry Patsey says things remain in limbo until the weather improves enough to begin the ground search again.
Until then, he says the family will continue to spread the word via social media and maintain hope for Cindy’s safe return.
“It seems like Cindy just vanished into thin air, but we still have our hopes up that she’s somewhere safe and warm.”
