Missing 82-year-old Langley grandmother found dead

Mounties say an 82-year-old Aldergrove woman who went missing near Harrison Lake in late October last year has been found dead.

The search began on Oct. 25, when beloved grandmother Jane Whitehouse was last seen. On Oct. 27, her vehicle was spotted on the Harrison East Forest Service Road at a washout following a then-recent atmospheric river storm.

After what family members and the Langley RCMP described as over 1,000 man hours, the search for Whitehouse was suspended on Nov. 7.

With winter weather setting in, it was considered too dangerous to keep searching until spring or summer when water levels reduced.

In an update Wednesday, police announced that a person matching Whitehouse’s description had been found dead.

Mounties offered condolences and said “the cause of her death is not considered suspicious.”

Melanie Sora, a spokesperson for the family, tells 1130 NewsRadio that the waiting for an answer has been difficult.

“I think that on a small level, all of us were holding out a tiny hope of a miracle that we would find her alive, but that wasn’t the case. And even though you have all this time to prepare yourself emotionally for it, when you have the finality of it, it still hits you hard,” said Sora.

She says she’s confident the family is missing what she described as its “backbone” in October.

“She’s the heart and soul of the family. She’s known for her kindness, her compassion, and she just has brilliant humour, and she’s desperately missed by everyone,” said Sora in October.