Volunteer searchers located the body of a missing 11-year-old girl Monday, after she went into the Assiniboine River near Poplar Point on the weekend.
Becky Waldner from the Poplar Point Hutterite colony near Portage la Prairie went missing Saturday evening while swimming with some friends.
Becky had been floating on a rubber tube while her friends played in the water. Her friends said Becky started to drift into a current and that’s when they lost sight of her.
“One (of the children) immediately ran home for help,” said Amos Waldner, Becky’s uncle.
On Monday morning, volunteers from the colony recovered her body from the water, about three kilometres from where she disappeared.
“It’s a sad day but also a happy day that we actually found her. I’m grateful to the good lord that they found her,” said Amos Waldner.
RCMP officers and community members desperately searched the area after she went missing on the weekend.
The water was too dangerous to put dive teams in, so officers used sonar equipment to try and find the child’s location.
The RCMP search and recovery team spent all day Sunday on site.
Officers said they were reassessing recovery efforts Monday morning, when police received word the girl’s body had been located.
“We were getting prepared to have members attend the location today and getting our resources in place when we were notified that the body had been recovered by local searchers,” said Cpl. Miles Hiebert from RCMP on Monday.
“There a lot of people here that helped and we are grateful,” said Amos Waldner.
RCMP also spoke about the need for water safety on Monday.
Police said parents should talk to children about staying away from rivers and streams unless they are in the company of an adult and also urged kids to wear life-jackets.
- with a report from CTV's Caroline Barghout
