Yukon RCMP say the search continues for an Arizona man missing since last week, when the vehicle he was in plunged into the Yukon River south of Whitehorse. And police are now describing their efforts as a “recovery” operation to find the body of Knate Ostenso.
“We’re doing our best to try to recover the missing individual to give some closure for the family,” said RCMP spokesperson Calista MacLeod on Thursday.
Ostenso was one of two men in the pickup truck that went into the river near the Lewes River bridge early on Sep. 16. The driver managed to escape the vehicle after it went into the water.
Police confirmed last week that Ostenso was not found in the submerged vehicle.
MacLeod said police continue to do boat patrols in the area to try to find Ostenso, including on Thursday. She also said a helicopter would be out searching the area on Friday.
Knate Ostenso was 1 of 2 men who were in the pickup truck that went into the Yukon River last week. The driver managed to escape the vehicle and make it to safety but Ostenso has not been found. (Submitted by Matthew Mihajlovich)
She said people have drowned in Yukon’s waterways before, and part of the current search efforts involves drawing on research and evidence about undercurrents and the river’s flow.
“Certainly those types of experiences, unfortunate experiences of different tragic events, will help to sort of identify the probable or potential areas where Mr. Ostenso might be located,” MacLeod said.
“It’s really about recovery at this point.”
Missing man’s wife praises Yukoners, criticizes police
Ostenso’s wife, Norine Mihajlovich, had been holding out hope last week that he may have escaped the water and become lost while trying to find safety. She pleaded with Yukoners last week to help search for her husband, describing him as a “fighter.”
Speaking to CBC News on Wednesday, she acknowledged that even if Ostenso managed to escape from the river, it’s unlikely that he will be found alive at this point.
“I told my kids their father was gone — dead,” she said.
Mihajlovich is effusive in expressing her gratitude toward Yukoners who have helped with the search efforts since last week.
Those efforts “have been so overwhelming for not only me, but for Knate’s friends, for Knate’s family, for everyone,” she said from her home in Arizona.
“I cannot express how amazing they are.”
She has a harsher opinion of the Yukon RCMP, saying they’ve kept her mostly in the dark about their ongoing search, and their investigation into how the vehicle went into the river. She also questions their decision to initially focus the search for Ostenso to the river and the submerged vehicle, instead of immediately mounting a larger operation to scour the wider area, in case Ostenso had survived the plunge.
RCMP searching for Ostenso near the Lewes River Bridge last week. (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC News)
“Search and rescue should have been called, helicopters should have been set up. They should have had search by land, and search by boat. They should have had dogs out there,” she said.
Mihajlovich also describes being stymied in her efforts to get more information from RCMP. She describes police as being dismissive, and says one officer told her she was “not being very pleasant.”
“This is what I have been experiencing since day one,” she said on Wednesday.
MacLeod, the RCMP spokesperson, told CBC that police understand how difficult this is for Mihajlovich, and they’re doing everything they can to keep her informed about the investigation. MacLeod said police typically establish a family liaison to communicate with a designated representative of the family.
She also said she could not speak to the assertion that an officer called Mihajlovich “unpleasant.”
“Our hearts really go out to her [Mihajlovich],” MacLeod said. “This cannot be easy for her, and it can’t be easy to maybe process everything that is happening.”
MacLeod also said police can’t always provide “complete, detailed information” about ongoing investigations.
“Sometimes we don’t have all the facts yet ourselves, right? We don’t know until the investigation advances,” she said.
“Motor vehicle collisions can be complicated. There’s a number of things that investigators have to look at, and those types of things take time.”