A teen who went missing for more than 50 hours in a massive wilderness park in B.C.’s Lower Mainland last week says she is still recovering from the trauma of her survival ordeal.
Esther Wang, 16, was hiking with fellow cadets last Tuesday when she became separated from her group, sparking a 40-person mountainside search effort.
The Langley, B.C. teenager was stranded in steep, forested terrain for two nights before walking to safety on Thursday night.
“I am overwhelmed by all the support and care everyone has shown me,” Wang wrote in a letter sent to CBC News by her family on Saturday. “And I am forever grateful for everyone involved with the search effort.”
In it, she publicly shared for the first time details of her harrowing fight to return home, thanking the rescue organizations, RCMP officers, and volunteers who sustained the search.
Wang and her family declined an interview request, asking for privacy.
Missing persons signs dotted the trail where Esther Wang went missing during the more than two-day search for the teen. (CBC)
Wang, an outdoor enthusiast and cadet for the past four years, walked out of Golden Ears Provincial Park last Thursday after two days. During that time, she described being disoriented and unable to grab the attention of more than 40 rescue personnel, but “determined to make my way home,” she wrote.
The provincial park is the largest in the Metro Vancouver region, spanning 650 square kilometres of mountainous wilderness north of Maple Ridge, B.C., a municipality east of Vancouver.
She and three others — including an adult — set out for a two-day hiking trip on the Golden Ears Trail last Tuesday. But Wang said she became so focused on the steep, challenging path on the first day that she did not notice she’d become separated from the other three people in her cadet group.
“Once I realized that the rest of my group was no longer in front of me, I tried to turn around,” Wang wrote. “But I tripped and fell down … I tried to stay as calm as possible.”
The Regional Cadet Support Unit of the Canadian Armed Forces confirmed Wang’s letter was authentic. A spokesperson said she was on a hike with two other youth cadets and one adult leader.
“We are grateful to hear that Esther attributes her outcome to the skills she learned through the four years she has been in the Cadet program,” wrote public affairs officer Capt. Jacqueline Zweng in an emailed statement to CBC News.
Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue said the search was aided by teams from across the Lower Mainland, while RCMP say about 45 search and rescue resources were deployed. (CBC)
Freezing and afraid
On Tuesday, as her first nightfall in the backcountry approached, Wang said she heard whistles and noises that sounded like rescue signals. But she could not locate where they were coming from.
She scaled down the mountain to find water, ate the food she had packed for her camping trip, and tried to sleep on cold rocks near a river.
Around 1 a.m. that night, she recounted, she woke up to what she believed were search lights above her on the mountainside.
But her attempts to shine her light in their direction went unnoticed.
“I was filled with hopelessness and fear,” she wrote, “but I knew I could not give up.”
As dawn broke on Wednesday, she decided to climb back up the mountain slope to try to find the trail from which she descended the day before.
But as she tried to locate what she thought were the sounds of whistles, she slipped and hit her head on rocks. She then heard “barking” noises far away, and climbed a neighbouring peak hoping to attract rescuers’ attention.
Wang says she is still recovering from surviving alone for two nights in the wilderness. (Submitted by Ridge Meadows RCMP)
Despite her efforts to be seen, rescue remained just out of her reach. She said she saw a yellow helicopter fly overhead several times, but shaking trees and other attempts to get attention went unseen.
“Everything I tried failed,” she said.
Photo helped orient her
CBC News has reached out to Ridge Meadows RCMP and Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue for comment.
During the search, the RCMP said efforts to ping Wang’s cellphone were unsuccessful, because there is little to no reception inside the park.
In her letter, she explained that her cellphone battery died, and she later lost the device altogether as she scrambled up a slope.
She said she spent Wednesday, her second night lost, under a tree at the top of a peak, seeking shelter from the cold.
As the sun rose on Thursday, Wang says it dawned on her that she had taken a series of photos with her digital camera. When she looked through the camera, she recognized one of the pictures as matching a snowy peak her hiking group had seen in the distance just two days earlier.
The photograph helped her orient herself and she decided to follow a river.
That’s when she found her first sign of relief.
“I noticed pink tape on some trees around me and my hopes soared high,” she wrote.
Soon, the river led to a gravel path to a beach, where there was a sign with directions to a parking lot.
That left her “filled with relief.”
‘I recognized my parents’
It was just after 9 p.m. Thursday when Wang spotted the parking lot, where she found her parents waiting for updates from searchers.
Paramedics examined scratches and bruises on her arms and legs, and where her feet had bled from wet boots rubbing on her skin.
Wang says the experience has left her with gratitude, but also physical and mental trauma she is only now beginning to come to terms with.
“My body and mind are still recovering and processing what happened,” she wrote.
She credited her faith, and her training in cadets, for her safe return.
“I believe God led me home to my safety,” she reflected. “The sheer willpower to keep moving forward is the reason I am still alive,” said Wang.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
