Manitoba

Bear Clan joins search for missing logger in Duck Mountain

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Mark McKelvey disappeared from job site after allergic reaction to bee sting and never returned

McKelvey worked as a logger for several years and had good survival skills, say family members.

A member of Winnipeg's Bear Clan has joined a small group of friends and family who aren't giving up on a man who disappeared from a logging site in Duck Mountain Provincial Park.



Pine River resident Mark Anthony McKelvey, 36, was seen leaving camp on foot July 24. The area, located about 25 kilometres northwest of Roblin, about 330 km northwest of Winnipeg, is on the side of a mountain covered with deep brush.

Around 12 people, mainly family, some friends and Darryl Contois from the Winnipeg Bear Clan are still searching the area.

"Everybody has a loved one missing somewhere and they want to see them again. So I'm very well-known in the bush; I'd rather hand out my services to try to help bring him home," said Contois.

McKelvey's family has set up a home-base about 12 kilometres from where he disappeared last week. They've been searching for him every day.

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He made the five-hour trip from Winnipeg to Duck Mountain on Monday and set up camp with McKelvey's family, who are staying about 12 kilometres from where he was last seen.

RCMP called off the search for McKelvey Friday, after exhausting "all reasonable search options," according to a spokesperson.

But his loved ones aren't giving up.

"It's up and down. Some people are going through a little bit of anger, some people are going through everything. It's a really emotional battle. Especially when you go into the bush and come out and don't find anything. It's heartbreaking really," said Amy Jeffries, a friend of McKelvey's.

She and her partner Matt Caudle, who considers McKelvey "a brother," have been commuting every day from Ashville to scour ditches, comb through the brush, check cabins and bodies of water.

"We've searched everywhere. And we've come up with nothing. I have really high hopes that this fellow [Contois] that joined us is going to help us find him," she said.

Allergy to bees

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McKelvey's family is concerned that his allergy to bees may have something to do with his disappearance.

"He got stung by a bee on Friday, they took him in, they gave him a shot, and I guess Sunday he got stung in the bum or the leg, and he didn't want to go in," said Bobby-Sue McKelvey, Mark's niece.

​McKelvey left the camper he shared with his brother early Monday morning, she said, but never returned.

He left the unfilled prescriptions from Friday — five days' worth of oral desloratadine, an antihistamine, and prednisone, a steroid — inside, she said.

Debbie McKelvey, Mark's sister (left) and Bobby-Sue McKelvey, Mark's niece, are concerned that his allergy to bees may have something to do with his disappearance. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

She's home in Winnipeg for a few days after she and her mother spent two days searching the site.

"Bushes you have to break your way through, they're so thick, you walk for miles and miles, we were walking up to our knees in the swamp, getting stuck in mud, and walking for hours and hours every day," she said.

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"It's hard, we're confused, we're puzzled, it hasn't hit us yet because we haven't found a body."

She said the unanswered questions, and the lack of evidence in the surrounding area, makes her wonder if her uncle was the victim of foul play.

Mark McKelvey left his camper last Monday morning and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"If he was in the bush there would've been some kind of sign of him. There would have been something saying that he was there; there's nothing there," she said.

"There should be footprints, there should've been something for the amount of bush that we combed, all those days, there's no evidence whatsoever."



RCMP found McKelvey's hat and sunglasses in a hole in the ground not far from his camper, she said, but nothing else.

'He would've made it out'

Mark McKelvey worked with the logging company, Trisum, for seven years, according to family, and was adept at survival in the woods.

"He always joked about if he got stuck in the bush he would make it out, he would make it out, he's the king of the mountain. So if Mark was healthy, he would've made it out. And he hasn't yet," said Jeffries.

A spokesperson for the RCMP said the Office of the FIre Commissioner, Search and Rescue, volunteers, the department of Natural Resources and RCMP searched a "massive" area in the Duck Mountain last week.

The investigation remains open, and new leads will be acted upon, according to the spokesperson.

One RCMP officer has given extra support to the searchers who remain, said Jeffries, offering his personal boat and even helping them search on his days off. She and Matt plan to search until he's found, she said, and McKelvey's family aren't giving up either.

"We're all hoping for the best but I believe something may have happened to him."