Families wait for men’s bodies to be recovered from creek after rocks blasted

KIMBERLEY, B.C. – The families of two young men whose truck was swept into a creek in Kimberley, B.C., will have to wait for the bodies to be recovered.

Eighteen-year-old Stephen Thomson of Canal Flats, B.C., and 21-year-old Nicholas Hoefnagels of Carstairs, Alta., vanished June 9 while camping at Whitetail Lake.

Searchers later pinpointed an area where a vehicle had veered off a forest service road near the lake and crashed into the rushing waters of Findlay Creek

RCMP Sgt. Laurie Jalbert (jal-BAIR) says the men's families paid for a blasting permit that allowed some rocks to be blown out at the creek, revealing part of the submerged truck.

But she says heavy rainfall that was expected to continue this week is hampering the search for the bodies and that crews are waiting for another chance to lower a camera into the vehicle.

Jalbert says water levels are not expected to decline significantly until much later in the summer.