On Sept. 22, Kyle Yrjola went paddleboarding with his girlfriend, Jaycee Martin, off Fintry Provincial Park on Okanagan Lake.
asserted
Yrjola → go → Lake
It was beautiful,” said Martin, 23 days after the incident.
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Martin → say → incident
The couple paddled out to the middle of the lake before deciding to turn back as the sun began to set.
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sun → paddle → lake
They were about two thirds of the way back when the weather began to change.
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weather → begin → way
“The wind kind of started picking up.
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wind → start → ?
We thought, okay, we can get through this,” said Martin.
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Martin → think → this
But the conditions quickly worsened.
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conditions → worsen → ?
“I said, ‘okay, hold on, babe.
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I → say → ?
Like there’s some big waves coming,’” Martin recalled.
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Martin → ’ → ?
“And sure enough, they just came and they just took him from me so fast.”
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they → come → me
Martin tried to get the board to him, but with the paddles swept away, the board drifted out of reach.
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board → try → reach
Within moments, she lost sight of her boyfriend.
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she → lose → boyfriend
Martin called for help as Yrjola disappeared from view.
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Yrjola → call → view
“We called 911,” Martin said.
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Martin → call → 911
“They told us to stay on our paddleboards.”
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They → tell → paddleboards
But by then, Martin was alone and doing her best to get to shore.
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Martin → do → shore
When police picked her up on the east side of Okanagan Lake, Martin thought Yrjola would be found somewhere along the shore.
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Yrjola → pick → shore
“I didn’t even want them to pick me up at first, because I was so close to the shore.
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I → want → shore
I kept telling them, ‘no, go find my boyfriend, like he’s out there.’”
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he → tell → boyfriend
For 23 days, family members were left searching for answers.
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members → leave → answers
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That changed when a volunteer Hutterite dive team from Manitoba arrived in the Okanagan to help with the search.
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team → get → search
Led by Manuel Maendel, the team brought specialized sonar equipment to scan the depths of Okanagan Lake, searching for signs of Yrjola.
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team → lead → Yrjola
“As Hutterites, when someone is in trouble and we see them struggling, we want to reach out and help,” Maendel said.
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Maendel → see → trouble
“It doesn’t matter where or how.”
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It → matter → ?
The team drove for two days to reach the Okanagan.
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team → drive → Okanagan
With a boat that is fitted with GPS guidance technology normally used in farming, the crew followed precise, straight lines across the water while scanning the lakebed.
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crew → fit → lakebed
Maendel said the idea came from using GPS systems to guide farm machinery through fields.
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idea → say → fields
The same technology helps the team methodically cover search areas.
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team → help → areas
The operation is volunteer-run and relies on donations and support from third parties to keep its equipment running to continue helping families searching for missing loved ones.
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operation → run → ones
On Sept. 14, the Hutterite dive team arrived in the Okanagan and began developing a search plan with Martin, whose knowledge of where she and Yrjola had been paddling would help guide the search.
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she → arrive → search
But the team arrived around sundown, meaning Martin would have to wait another day before the search could begin.
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search → arrive → sundown
The divers also made it clear that finding someone in a body of water as deep as Okanagan Lake would be difficult.
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finding → make → Lake
At depths reaching 600 feet, even specialized sonar equipment cannot guarantee a discovery.
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equipment → reach → discovery
Sometimes, searches turn up nothing.
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searches → turn → nothing
Other times, divers may come across evidence of another person who had been missing.
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who → come → person
The search began early the next morning, with Martin watching as the team scanned the depths of Okanagan Lake.
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team → begin → Lake
Then, something appeared on the sonar.
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something → appear → sonar
“My heart dropped immediately because it looked exactly like a body,” Martin said.
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Martin → drop → body
While the sonar picked up the anomaly, the team couldn’t know for certain what was beneath the surface.
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what → pick → surface
Without sending a camera down or getting a diver to visually confirm the object, there was no way to determine exactly what they had found.
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they → send → what
…and 5 more, not listed.
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