RCMP Watch

Caroline Alphonso (Globe and Mail) - The family of a young man who was hit by a train in Moncton and hurled into a creek will continue the search for his body today, three days after the RCMP gave up.

Edwin Hughes, a certified commercial diver, has combed the waters of Halls Creek with his friends for the past two days looking for any sign of his 22-year-old son Michael’s body. Mr. Hughes’s wife, Karen, has walked the banks. Today, they will use a boat to search the Petitcodiac River, which lies beyond the creek.

Michael and his girlfriend were walking his dog along a train trestle Friday afternoon when they saw a train approaching. The dog got stuck on the tracks and, as Michael tried to rescue it, the two were hit by the train. The young man was flipped off the bridge and into the fast-moving waters of the creek. The dog was injured and had to be put down.

RCMP divers ended their search Sunday, saying the strong tides made diving too dangerous.

The Hughes family disagreed. Ms. Hughes said yesterday that her husband kept telling police to wait until the tide changed, but they ignored him. She said the police divers were in the water for only about three hours.

“They should have never given up. They should have never given up to begin with. My husband is a diver and he knew what they did was not enough, that what they did was wrong.”

Her husband and his diving friends have searched the waters for the past two days each time the tide changes, she said.

“It is possible to dive that current. But they kept saying ‘You couldn’t do it, you couldn’t do it.’ You take it at face value that these people are professionals, they know what they’re doing, they’re trained to do this thing, and they do everything they can for you.

“In this case, I’m very disappointed. I cannot believe it, and I hope to God nobody up here has to go through this.”

RCMP Constable Chantal Farrah said the search team, comprising divers, RCMP officers, a helicopter, dogs and three local fire departments, exhausted every avenue looking for the young man.

The water level was high from melting ice, and the current in the Petitcodiac looked like mini-rapids, she said yesterday. A member of the search team almost fell into the water, she added. “Because of the treacherous conditions with the water and the high current, they weren’t able to continue the search in the Petitcodiac.”

Since Saturday, Mr. Hughes has stayed in a Moncton hotel so he can continue the search. Ms. Hughes has been making her way back and forth from home in Pocologan, west of Saint John. She said she found out about her son’s accident when she phoned his home Friday night and his roommate answered.

“We came here Saturday morning and it has just been a nightmare ever since,” she said.

Michael, the younger of two sons, never lived in one place for too long, his mother said. He would stay in a city for the winter, working in restaurants and earning money before travelling to another part of the country.

In Moncton, he was working at a restaurant and in a brewery.

“He was what we called our little roadrunner. He’s been from one end of Canada to the other. He never settled,” she said, her voice cracking.

She remained hopeful that his body would be found.

“They’ve given it everything they’ve got,” she said of her husband and his friends. “We’re going to leave here confident that they’ve done everything. But it should never have gone this far. All this should have been done from the top end and I would be home and I’d have my boy.”