Winnipeg police pulled a body from the Red River Thursday night, just blocks from where officers had been searching for a missing 61-year-old woman.

The body was pulled from the water around 6 p.m. at Provencher Boulevard and Tache Avenue, but police could not say if it was a man or woman, nor could they confirm if it was linked to to the disappearance of 61-year-old Jill Tardiff.

Tardiff, a former principal who worked at a number of schools in the city, disappeared after a brief stay at St. Boniface Hospital this past weekend.

Days before she went missing, Tardiff had taken some pills and been admitted to hospital, her husband told CBC.

Former students of Tardiff organized a search of Whittier Park earlier this week but turned up nothing.

According to Winnipeg police, officers have been on the ground searching for Tardiff near her home since Monday, but a larger scale search with volunteers and police began Wednesday and concluded on Thursday.

Officers were searching near the Seine River as well as Provencher Boulevard — not far from the Whittier Park area where Tardiff lived.