Dog’s return only adds to mystery of Canadian man missing in wilderness

When Micaela Sawyer saw the photo of a weak, emaciated dog shuddering in the snow, she hoped desperately it was her Murphy.

The golden retriever with a dulled red coat and legs riddled with injuries, was unmistakably the dog she and her partner, Jim Barnes, had raised as a puppy, she said.

For more than 50 days, Barnes and Murphy had been the focus of an extensive search in the wilderness of western Canada after they vanished in mid-October.

But incredibly, after weeks of hope and despair, Murphy was home at last.

“He is badly injured, with major swelling, puncture wounds (possibly from a dog or coyote), a broken front paw, and scabs all over,” Sawyer wrote on Facebook, sharing an image of a dog, his right paw in a bright red cast. “His behavior has changed too, from a quiet, independent dog to one who barks at every sound and howls when I leave the room.”

The dog’s unlikely reunion with Sawyer is both joyous and heart-rending. Barnes remains missing, a disappearance in British Columbia that has baffled search crews who have found little trace of the veteran outdoorsman.

“Finding Murphy alive gives us hope that we might finally get answers about what happened to Jim,” Sawyer wrote.

On 18 October, Barnes, 28, and Murphy departed on a short trip to collect firewood and hunt grouse, headed for a remote corner of British Columbia where Barnes had often hunted, fished and foraged. Barnes was due for a shift as a paramedic the next day in Fort St John, but the two never returned and Sawyer reported her partner missing.

Early the next day, 19 October, Barnes’s phone pinged on a forest service road south of the town, giving search teams their first major clue.

Sawyer and two others immediately started searching the area, where Barnes had once worked with the crews laying a pipeline.

By noon, his grey pickup truck was found on the side of the road. Most of his belongings, including his phone, keys, bag and firearms were inside. The door was left ajar.

The lands and waters of Peace River country can be fickle in October. Temperatures can plunge with little notice. Within an hour of the truck being spotted, heavy snow started falling. Animals also present a risk. It was the tail end of hunting season, and “gutpiles” of slain deer were scattered throughout the area. The teams saw fresh evidence of grizzly bears and wolves nearby, but no clear evidence of a predatory attack.

Initially, the terrain was deemed by police too treacherous for a volunteer search and so for two days, professional teams pushed hard and covered immense ground. When the weather cleared, a helicopter flew over the river.

“It’s a busy area where he went missing. There’s lots of hunting, community cattle pastures and foragers for chaga [mushrooms]. It’s just strange,” said Shona Murray, a paramedic who organized a volunteer search after formal efforts were paused.

Murray, a friend of Sawyer, drew on the talents the community had on offer: firefighters, foresters and avid outdoors people all keen to help bring Barnes home safely. “He would have been better oriented to the area than most and then he just vanished,” Murray said. “Search teams commented many times on how odd it was that he vanished without a trace.”

It was a hostile environment for the search: the forest floor was littered with blown-down spruce trees and thick brush. Search dogs found no sign of Murphy or Barnes.

Eventually, volunteers discovered a valuable clue: a frozen boot print and dogs prints along the river, 3km (1.8 miles) from the truck.

What felt like a major break in the search soon fizzled out. Murray says police never visited the scene, nor did they put any of their own boats in the water, seemingly relying on the resources of volunteers.

“They were very disorganized,” said Murray, who asked why more effort wasn’t made to search the rivers. “All the jurisdictions of the RCMP [Canada’s federal police force] played hot potato with this file … There isn’t much trace, but what was found wasn’t followed up on”

In a statement, police in the region say the search remained a “top priority” for local units.

But a dearth of answers, clues or explanations has left those who scoured the forest with only speculation.

“Obviously your brain runs rampant with theories, but that leaves you wondering where to even start,” said Murray, who said possible explanations for Barnes’s disappearance were injury from a fall, an animal attack or getting swept away by the river. “He wouldn’t have just gotten lost. We’re just left with more questions than answers.”

Against the odds, the search has persisted into December – bolstered by two pieces of good news.

In late November, Sam Benastick, 20, who went missing the same day as Barnes in a nearby wilderness park, emerged from the wilds alive after surviving 50 days alone. He later told friends a wolf had chased him, causing him to lose bearings. In the final weeks, he subsisted on a single jar of peanut butter.

Then at the end of November, a photo of an injured dog was posted to a local Facebook group for lost and found pets more than 120km from the initial search area.

He wasn’t tattooed or microchipped, but Sawyer has taken the dog to the local groomers, where it appeared comfortable. She’s also taken him on familiar paths they walked, and is convinced the dog is Murphy.

But police aren’t sure.

“At this time we cannot with 100% certainty say this is in fact Murphy. While the family feels it might be Murphy, the RCMP are looking into a DNA test to determine positively that it is Murphy,” Sgt Madonna Saunderson, a Northern district RCMP spokesperson, said in a statement.

But a DNA test would take months – time which friends say Barnes doesn’t have as the grip of winter tightens over the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Earlier this week, at the request of local RCMP, North Peace Search and Rescue posted a photo of volunteers searching the Halfway River area earlier this week, nearby to where the dog was found. Heavy snow blanketed the area.

Still, the miraculous return of a young dog has given the searchers a rare sliver of good news – a helpful respite when facing down larger and probably more devastating realities.

“It’s been a heartbreaking journey, and while we wish Murphy could share his story, we fear we couldn’t bear to hear it,” wrote Sawyer. “He’s such a sweet boy, and he didn’t deserve any of this, nor did Jim.”