For four years, Kyle Kematch has been searching for his missing sister, Amber Guiboche, first on the streets of Winnipeg and now up and down the Red River.
“It does help me to know that I’m not just sitting there wondering when anybody is going to do anything,” said Kematch. “At least I can say I’m trying.”
Bernadette Smith’s sister Claudette Osborne went missing in July 2008.
Tired of wondering what secrets the Red River holds, she helped a group called Drag the Red to find out.
"We've always wondered whether there's more bodies in here, especially in light of Tina Fontaine's body being found in the water,” said Smith.
The work involves the simple process of dragging a metal bar with hooks on it along the river bottom and then floating downstream with the current until it catches on something.
The searchers have turned hundreds of items over to the Winnipeg Police Service in the hopes they might reveal even a shred of evidence that might help bring closure to another family.
“Maybe DNA,” said Kematch, “If there is DNA of missing or murdered women that they know about, then they probably have DNA. I know they’ve got DNA for my sister.”
Volunteers said they have found items people didn’t want found, including things tied to cinder blocks and buckets filled with cement.
“We’ll shine a light on, or give closure to, one or more of these cases,” said Neil Walstrom, who welded the drag bars and the hooks.
For 16 straight days, he has joined Kematch and others on the water. Exposed to the elements, the work wears on them physically and emotionally, yet still they continue.
"The big thing is letting the families know that we care,” said Walstrom. “That there's people in the community that care. That they are not alone."
Volunteers plan to stay on the river as long as conditions allow and say they will return in the spring.
