Questions raised about couple lost in B.C. mountains

CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ..FEBRUARY 26, 2009 5:01

GOLDEN, B.C. — The RCMP in eastern British Columbia will conduct an internal officer review to determine why a Quebec couple, lost in the freezing mountains since the day after Valentine’s Day, were not rescued sooner.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk told a news conference here the review will be a joint effort between the RCMP, the coroner and search and rescue. He said it will examine whether there was an error on the part of the RCMP officers not to dig further into reports, days before they launched a search.

The search for the pair didn't start until Feb. 24, despite several sightings of SOS signs that had been carved in the snow.

“Based on the limited information that was received, notwithstanding again the blaring fact that we had an SOS sign in the snow, search and rescue should have been called out on Feb. 21,” said Moskaluk. “We know we have garnered international attention. Certainly we want to ensure the community . . . that we normally have very good success with the coordination of our search and rescue efforts.”

By the time searchers rescued Gilles Blackburn, 51, on Tuesday morning near the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, B.C., his wife, 44-year-old Marie-Josée Fortin, had already died several days earlier. Blackburn spent nine days in the cold.

Police have said his wife died of exposure. An autopsy will be conducted Friday.

A registered nurse, Fortin went to work for PRA International, a clinical research company headquartered in Victoria, B.C. about a year and a half ago.

"She worked out of her home in LaSalle monitoring clinical trials in Canada," said Tim Walkup, the company's Human Resources director. "She was highly regarded by her supervisor, very well liked by her patients. She was a very nice person."

Questions remained Thursday about why the search for the pair didn't start until Tuesday, despite several sightings of SOS signs that had been carved in the snow.

Blackburn still had enough energy to get himself to where the rescue helicopter had landed on the mountain, about 17 kilometres from the resort in an out-of-bounds area.

Blackburn was taken to hospital, where he was treated for frostbite.

The couple only had two granola bars with them and their skiing equipment when they became lost in the out-of-bounds area on Feb. 15. They had apparently lost their way in the wilderness during a romantic Valentine's Day holiday.

Authorities say the pair, from the Montreal suburb of LaSalle, was dressed only for a day of skiing at the resort and didn't have any survival equipment.

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