MAKKOVIK, N.L. – Police in northern Labrador say an air team searching for a missing 14-year-old boy has found snowmobile tracks on ice headed into open water.
Officials began searching for the boy after he was reported missing Sunday at 7:30 p.m., six hours after he left his parent’s home on a snowmobile in the remote community of Makkovik.
The village borders the Labrador Sea, which is currently frozen from the shoreline to about 10 kilometres out into the ocean, RCMP Cpl. Kimball Vardy said Monday.
He said a boat has been brought in to check the water and police are looking at using an underwater camera.
Vardy said the boy left his parent’s house around 1:30 p.m. Sunday and made a short stop at his grandmother’s home before leaving on a snowmobile to an unknown destination.
“That’s the last time anyone has seen him,” said Vardy.
Vardy said about 50 people and two helicopters were searching different areas around Makkovik and Postville on Sunday evening and Monday.
The two communities are about 80 kilometres apart and during the winter are only accessible by air or snowmobile.
“It’s rocky,” Vardy said. “There are trees and everything is snow-covered right now.”
Vardy said officials have also been searching popular snowmobile trails used for hunting and cutting wood.
He said it was lightly snowing Sunday afternoon and reached about -15 C overnight.
Officers say they don’t know how much gasoline was in the yellow, Tundra 300 snowmobile the boy was using when he left his home.
They say the boy is not experienced on the land and they don’t believe he had any survival supplies.
