Kamloops posted Oct 29, 2024 @ 06:30am by Iain Burns

Volunteers from Okanagan, Kamloops come home as search for missing hiker 'paused'

More than a dozen searchers from across the Southern Interior have returned home after spending the last week looking for a missing man in the Rockies.

Volunteers from the Central Okanagan, Kamloops, Vernon, Logan Lake and Shuswap have been helping with efforts to find Sam Benastick, who was last seen on Oct. 7.

On Sunday, Mounties said the man was last seen at a trailhead in the Redfern Lake area. He was riding a red Honda dirt bike, police explained.

<who> Photo credit: RCMP </who> Benastick (right) and the dirt bike he was seen riding.

Benastick was supposed to return from his camping trip in the Northern Rockies on Oct. 17.

In a post on social media on Monday, Central Okanagan Search and Rescue said the last five volunteers from the Southern Interior had come home as the search was “paused” by the RCMP.

<who> Photo credit: COSAR </who> Search teams returning home.