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Body of young man who drowned in Chilliwack Lake recovered

Searchers find 18-year-old from Surrey seven days after he disappeared
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Chilliwack Search and Rescue conducted short-line searches June 12 along the shore and in shallow water of Chilliwack Lake looking for a missing man. His body was recovered June 18. (CSAR photo)

The body of a teenager who drowned in Chilliwack Lake last week has been recovered.

On June 18, the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team supported by Chilliwack RCMP and Chilliwack Search and Rescue (CSAR) recovered the body of the 18-year-old man from Surrey who was last seen on June 12.

The BC Coroners Service is in the early stages of its investigation into the incident, and no further details are available at this time, according to Chilliwack RCMP.

The man was attempting to recover a drifting boat last Tuesday when he went under in frigid Chilliwack Lake, according to friends.

RCMP and CSAR were called out, but by Wednesday morning the search had been scaled back.

“It is really sad for his parents and friends,” CSAR search manager Dan McAuliffe said last week after his team conducted short-line searches and waded in chest high with masks and snorkels, all to no avail.

SAR members found the fibreglass motorboat that the man was trying to retrieve about a kilometre away.

It was the first boat-related rescue call from Chilliwack Lake that CSAR members attended in a number of years. A few years ago they pulled a paraglider who had crashed into the lake, and over the years they recovered three motorists after vehicles had been driven into the lake.

• READ MORE: Man missing in Chilliwack Lake

• READ MORE: RCMP scales back search for missing young man in Chilliwack Lake


@PeeJayAitch
paul.henderson@theprogress.com

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