Search suspended for 82-year-old grandmother missing in B.C. mountains for nearly 3 weeks

The family of a missing 82-year-old woman last seen in Aldergrove in late October says the search has been suspended.

Jane Whitehouse’s vehicle was found in a remote area near Harrison Lake on Sunday, Oct. 27, spotted on the Harrison East Forest Service Road at a washout.

Police indicate she was last seen at 10:10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 25 in Aldergrove.

The Langley RCMP released a surveillance image showing what the elderly grandmother was wearing before she disappeared that day — a thigh-length green jacket, a dark sweater with white stripes, and dark pants.

What happened between then and when her grey Dodge Caravan was found abandoned almost 120 kilometres away is a mystery.

In an update posted to social media Thursday, a representative of Whitehouse’s family says the search will be suspended, but the case is not closed.

“Over 1,000 hours of manpower for the searches plus planning were put into this intense task. Helicopters, drones with FLIR (forward-looking infrared), and search dogs were deployed. SAR went over every possible route Jane could have travelled and covered many kilometres,” Melanie Sora shared.

She says no heat signatures or scents were ever picked up, and the search effort has collectively concluded that Whitehouse has likely died.

“One of Jane’s shoes was found by the van and the other further along the track (the spur road that is a narrow offshoot of the main forest service road) along a steep precipice,” Sora explained. 

“Jane most likely slipped into the swollen waters of the creek and was carried further down. In the remote chance that she didn’t go into the waters, she most likely would have tried to find shelter in some underbrush and would have succumbed to hypothermia.”

Sora says winter weather is setting into the high altitudes, and it’s now too dangerous to continue the search.

“The search will be resumed in the summer once the water levels have diminished and it’s safer to do a recovery.”

Whitehouse’s family expressed their gratitude to search and rescue teams, including Central Fraser Valley Search and Rescue Society, Chilliwack Search and Rescue, Mission Search and Rescue Society, Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue, Coquitlam Search and Rescue, and Hope Volunteer Search and Rescue, as well as the Langley and Agassiz RCMP.

She tells 1130 NewsRadio that though the family knew Whitehouse’s chance of survivability was low, reconciling with the loss was its own challenge.

“It’s one thing when you know it in your in your head, as opposed to the physical reaction with your body, when the finality is there,” said Sora.

“They needed some time to just sit with that and grieve.”

Sora says the family does not want anyone else to get injured looking for Whitehouse, but “if anyone is in the area and they do notice anything that seems unusual or of curiosity,” she says to leave it untouched and contact Mounties immediately.

1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the Langley RCMP for more information.

—With files from Emma Crawford, Mike Lloyd, Charlie Carey, and Maria Vinca