Syd Neville has been found.
The body of the 35-year-old Lakes District man was discovered 174 metres below the surface of Francois Lake where he drowned after his boat capsized on June 7. He and his nephew were fishing when a storm blew up. His nephew survived the ordeal by clinging to the boat and said Neville was able to hang on for quite some time but eventually could not endure the hypothermic temperatures and wild waves.
A search of the surface and shoreline was unsuccessful, as were initial sonar probes, but the equipment available was insufficient for the significant depths and large search area. Neville was discovered due to an act of mercy by Gene and Sandy Ralston, a retired couple from Idaho who travel the continent searching for underwater victims.
Their profession was deep-water environmental assessments and research, but they felt moved to use their sensitive sonar imaging equipment and considerable expertise for the benefit of grieving families unable to recover the bodies of loved ones. Neville was the 87th body the Ralstons have located since 2000.
"It totally surprised us. We didn't have a lot of hope because the search area was so huge, but we put a few clues together and gave it a shot, and we found him," said Gene Ralston. "We took his nephew out with us and he took us out to where he thought the accident first happened. We used some interview techniques to make him feel comfortable in the conversation talking about some difficult memories, and we just talked out some fragments of things he saw and things he had in mind from the ordeal they went through. It came out that he remembered he was able to see the ferry [Francois Lake Forester] at one point when Syd was still with the boat, and that was an incredible clue."
Neville's nephew was saved at an area of the lake near Sandy's Resort. The Ralstons measured from there back to the point at which the ferry was still visible to someone clinging to a boat in wavy water. A few other clues were also factored into the scenario. It was still a large area, but much better than before.
A grid was drawn on a map of the search zone, the Ralstons set to work on the grid lines, covering different sectors radiating out from the middle.
"We started on grid line No. 20 and we found him on line No. 19. It totally blew us away," said Ralston.
It helped that Neville came to rest on a flat area of the deep lake, with few physical features around him. The sonar equipment used by the Ralstons can pick up small details, but when the deep-water rig passed over Neville's area, the image was distinct.
"The people watching us from the shore knew we had found him right away, they could tell from the sudden changes in what we were doing out on the water. It all happened just that fast," said Ralston.
The couple praised the high level of community care shown to Neville's loved ones and to help them on their mission. It isn't always like that, Ralston said. When they arrived, there was already a fundraising effort underway to cover their travel expenses and incidental costs, fuel, groceries, and other needs since the couple does the actual work virtually for free.
The Ralstons will remain at Francois Lake for the duration of the recovery mission. They will help direct the submersible resources - be it human divers or submarine equipment - en route Friday from southern B.C. to take hold of Neville and bring him back to the surface.
Finding the Bottom Line
It is still a matter of discussion at the provincial government level as to who willl pay for the recovery of Syd Neville's body from 174 metres below the surface of Francois Lake.
"I don't know the answer to that, but it has been the topic of much discussion in our offices today and we hope to have it all sorted out by Tuesday," said Barb McLintock of the BC Coroners Service. "Right now the RCMP is doing a very good job taking the lead, but we could become involved in the recovery. We certainly do become involved as soon as a body is recovered, so we are following the situation at Francois Lake closely."
According to McLintock, there are policies that outline the protocols for body recovery in certain instances, but this is slightly different.
"This is not the first time this has happened, and it will surely not be the last, but the problem we have is, the policies were written prior to the use of these sophisticated sonar systems," she said. "Bodies are being found now that in previous times would never have been recovered. We are now trying to work out how to update the policies to catch up with the technologies. We are certainly pleased that perhaps families can get closure and answers can be learned in ways that were not possible before."
The question is almost certain to come up again soon since the next mission of mercy on the Ralston's schedule is Harrison Lake where missing man Raymond Salmen is being sought. He went missing in that southern B.C. lake during a hiking trip only two days after Neville's incident.
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