(UPDATE: Aug. 2 @ 7:20 pm) - A dog who spent more than 24 hours scared, wandering alone on the Coquihalla Highway has been found and safely corralled.
Jayda the Rottweiler got loose when the vehicle she was travelling in was involved in a crash with a semi along the major highway route on Tuesday morning.
Tragically, the woman who died in the crash was Jayda's owner, and her family was tasked with trying to find the Rottweiler as they processed the grief of losing their loved one.
But around 6:30 pm, the crash victim's family member, Amy Hoogstraten, posted the update that thousands who had been emotionally drawn into the search for Jayda had been waiting and hoping to hear.
"JAYDA HAS BEEN FOUND!"
"Thanks to all of your updates, calls and texts, and to the generosity of the pipeline workers, we have been able to get Jayda reunited with her family," Hoogstraten wrote on the Coquihalla Road Reports Facebook group, which seemed to be the centre of the online search efforts.
"We cannot thank you all enough for keeping an eye out and letting us know when you had seen her. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so so much!"
She extended a special thanks to Kiewet construction workers for their efforts to help track Jayda down, along with the many members of the public who reported sightings or tried to help in any way possible.
(UPDATE: Aug. 2 @ 8:35 am) - Lianne Hoogstraten, mother of the woman who died in a fatal crash on the Coquihalla Highway on Tuesday, has shared a photo of her daughter's missing dog.
Jayda was travelling with Hoogstraten's daughter when they collided with a commercial flatbed truck near the Caroline Mine Road exit around 8:30 am.
As of 8 am today, the Rottweiler has not been found.
Another family member, Amy Hoogstraten commented on Lianne's post saying that Jayda was last seen around 9 pm running north in the southbound lane of the Coquihalla about 3 kilometres south of the Portia exit.
(Original story: Aug. 2 @ 7:45 am) - A woman was killed in a crash between a passenger vehicle and commercial flatbed truck on the Coquihalla Highway Tuesday morning.
Now, the woman’s grieving parents are desperately trying to find her dog after it got loose during the crash.
Emergency crews were called to the scene near the Caroline Mine Road exit around 8:30 am. Sadly, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The BC Highway Patrol’s Chilliwack division has assumed conduct of the investigation and noted that drugs or alcohol don’t appear to be contributing factors.
Late Tuesday night, another bit of information from the crash came out courtesy of the Coquihalla Road Reports Facebook group.
The victim’s mother, Lianne Hoogstraten took to the page to see if anyone had seen her daughter’s dog, who was travelling with the woman at the time of the fatal crash.
“We lost our daughter today on the Coquihalla. Her dog is loose still, as far as we know. Friendly but shy Rottweiler female. Her name is Jayda,” Hoogstraten wrote.
“We are coming through in just over an hour, if anyone has any more recent info please help us find her.”
Hoogstraten’s post came just minutes after Shane Nastrom took to the same Facebook group to report a sighting of a Rottweiler running loose on the Coquihalla not far from the crash site.
Hundreds of people jumped into the comment section on either post to try and help as they can.
Shannon Rae said she also saw the dog near the Caroline Mine exit Tuesday night as it was making its way up the gravel road off the highway.
“When (we) called out to it, she stopped, but seemed shy and nervous,” Rae explained.
Unfortunately, Nastrom provided an update around 7 am today saying the dog has not yet been corralled.
