Major crime unit sends help to police, family, searching for missing woman

PENELAKUT ISLAND, B.C. – A search for a missing 18-year-old woman is ramping up on a small island just east of Ladysmith, B.C.

Island District RCMP Cpl. Darren Lagan says additional resources from Vancouver Island’s integrated major crime unit are being sent to Penelakut Island, south of Thetis Island, in the Gulf Island chain.

Delores Brown was last seen on the island, formerly known as Kuper Island, on July 27 and was reported missing two days later.

Since then, police, community members and search and rescue teams have scoured the area, a First Nations reserve and home to several hundred members of the Penelakut Band.

Lagan says Brown’s family is very concerned because she has never gone missing before.

She is described as five feet six inches tall, about 120 pounds and was wearing blue jeans, a hoodie, and carrying a backpack when she went missing.