Mark McKelvey's family still searching, one year after he vanished in Duck Mountain
McKelvey, 37, disappeared July 24, 2017
The pain of an entire year without their loved one is still raw for family and friends of Mark McKelvey, who disappeared while working in Duck Mountain Provincial Park on July 24, 2017, but it also fuels their resolve to keep searching.
The 37-year-old from Pine River, Man., was last seen at the Trisum logging camp he was working at last summer. The park — about 330 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — is covered with thick forest.
His loved ones regularly return there to look for him, quadding some 15 kilometres beyond the logging road to his old work site, and put up posters. They took another 10-day trip two weeks ago.
"To get some kind of closure, to find him. Nobody's seen him walk away from there, nobody seen him walk in to the bush, nobody's seen him at all," said Mark Paul, 43, a relative and good friend. He and his partner moved to Foxwarren from Winnipeg to be closer to the park so they could search.
McKelvey, who was allergic to bees, was stung three days before he disappeared. His brother, who was working for the same logging company, took him to the nearby hospital in Roblin, Man.
He was given a prescription for antihistamines and a steroid, but had no money to get it filled, according to Paul. He had worsening swelling and hallucinations until Monday, July 24, so he didn't work that day. When the crew returned to camp later that evening, he was gone.
"The first thing they shoulda did is get him the hell outta there," said Paul. "It's a safety issue. A health matter. Let's get him to the hospital and that's where he's going to stay," said Paul.
The CBC was not able to reach anyone at Trisum Logging. McKelvey's hat and sunglasses were found about 20 feet from the camp, in the opposite direction from the road, in a hole in an old tree.
'That's what keeps bringing us back to the camp ... I know Mark would never go anywhere without his hat and sunglasses," said his niece, Marsha McKelvey.
Paul said it gives their family hope to hear that Russell Hyslop's family found him after a month of searching.
"You could hear people screaming and yelling and crying because they found him and he was alive," he said, quoting what he read about the story.
"I'm happy for them. I'm glad the kid's OK. He had three kids. Mark also has three kids. That's tough on them. That part of being him alive is probably not what we're going to find. If we do find him."
Several different agencies pitched in as aircraft performed surveys from above when McKelvey went missing, but RCMP called off the official search effort on July 28, 2017. Several family members told the CBC an RCMP officer from Roblin, Man., has stuck to the case relentlessly since then and takes care to keep the family informed of any developments.
"We appreciate it," said Paul.
McKelvey's brother and other family members were too upset to speak to the CBC, though they encouraged Paul to speak on their behalf.
"He was a good worker. He had troubles in his life like everybody else ... He was a good friend, he would take off his shirt if you needed one, or if you needed help doing something he'd be right there," he said.
"Family comes first and blood is thicker than water. What I've seen with this family is that's what they care about is one another," he added.
The group will resume their search efforts later this summer, with one shared mission:
"Closure. Find him. We have to. We can't just ... if it was one of the other family members he would be there, searching."
