American involved in search for missing Sagkeeng snowmobilers has helped find nearly 90 bodies worldwide

Minnesotan Tom Crossman has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in high tech gear and logged countless volunteer hours around the world helping recover drowning victims and missing people, as he did in Manitoba this week.

Crossman's experienced hands helped guide his $100,000-remote operated underwater vehicle and camera (ROV) to two bodies beneath the icy Winnipeg River in Sagkeeng First Nation on Wednesday and Thursday.

Authorities haven't confirmed the identities but the chief of the Sagkeeng said he is "99.9 per cent sure" the bodies are those of a pair of snowmobilers missing from the community since November.

Crossman said he was touched to be able to help provide closure for loved ones of the dead.

That payoff is something that has driven him to help find nearly 90 bodies submerged in waterways from Canada to Guatemala, Jamaica and throughout the U.S.

He typically asks for help covering his travel, food and accommodation costs but provides his $650,000 of specialized gear, time and know-how free of charge.

"It's been unbelievable, really overwhelming the kind responses I get from from people because, again, this is very expensive technology and not everyone can afford it," Crossman told CBC Radio Noon host Marjorie Dowhos on Friday.

"To be able to help those people is just unbelievable. The warm hugs you receive from a mother like yesterday, it beats anything — it beats any amount of money, I can tell you that."

Crossman is retired now but used to work full-time for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons.

He's been volunteering with various American county rescue squads for 34 years because he says he noticed how often local law enforcement agencies don't have the resources required to continue searching the murky depths of lakes and rivers for missing people.

"I saw a need to help families out, and I wanted to do it without it costing them a lot of money," he said.

'We feel a sense of elation': Volunteer dive team locates 2nd body in icy river search for missing ​Sagkeeng snowmobilers

6 years ago

Duration 3:04

In two days, members of a volunteer dive team helped find two bodies in the icy Winnipeg River during a search for two missing ​Sagkeeng First Nation snowmobilers.

As serious as his volunteer search and rescue work is, Crossman maintains a sense of humour about his business plan. He takes contracts with shipping companies looking for help fishing out things like missing anchors from ships in the Great Lakes, gets paid work doing hydroelectric dam inspections and teaches law enforcement about public safety.

"I do commercial work to fund this the nonprofit work. It's the dumbest business plan you'll ever have so don't follow me into business," he said.

Crossman said his time-consuming and unusual, if not hugely important, retirement passion is supported by his family members.

"Most women would find me to be absolutely bananas and so to have a wife that supports me to do this is over the top," he said. "She is a saint."

One of his sons is a police officer and another is finishing school with plans of becoming a cop as well. One son has helped him out on searches in the past, carrying on a sort of unconventional family tradition.

"I was kind of born into it. My dad did it when I was a boy, so I started to go on calls with him when I was 12 years old," said Crossman.

With the Sagkeeng search behind him, Crossman said he felt grateful to team up with members of Manitoba's own volunteer search squad, the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team (HEART).

"HEART is the proper name for their organization, because they are truly heart-driven people," he said. 

Brothers Manuel and Paul Maendel launched HEART more than a decade ago. The brothers hope after the successful use of Crossman's fancy ROV in Sagkeeng they can garner enough donations to buy their own machine to have at the ready for future Manitoba water searches.

"People say they want badly to do what's right for people. They're in fact trying now to fundraise to purchase an ROV so you guys have one up here in Manitoba, so gosh I would encourage anyone that's willing" to contribute to HEART's GoFundMe campaign, Crossman added.