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Three men disappeared as Sooke River rose

Times Colonist4 February 2020p. A1JDF SAR era

“Three men disappeared as Sooke River rose”, Times Colonist, p. A1, 4 February 2020 ref-only
Read this article on the Times Colonist site ↗

Summary

Juan de Fuca search-and-rescue and RCMP continued the search for a missing man on the Monday. Three men had disappeared on the Saturday in a pickup truck; that truck ended up in the river, the bodies of two of the men were found on the Sunday, and the search continued on the Monday for the third. Police were not sure how the truck ended up in the river; the men were believed to have been travelling on Sooke River Road, which runs along the river, and Sooke RCMP were trying to determine where the vehicle left the road, noting it appeared the road was covered in "fast-moving" river water on the Friday night. Ground and air searches continued on the Monday. Search-and-rescue volunteers trained in water rescues were out in kayaks and searching the shoreline on foot, focused on the area around Sooke River Road before Sooke Potholes Regional Park. "We have searchers searching from the river where it's safe for them to do so up to the road where the water crossed," Farr said.

Written from the article text only. Where the scan is hard to read, the summary was taken from the page image rather than the OCR.

Details

Headline	“Three men disappeared as Sooke River rose”
Publication	Times Colonist
Date	4 February 2020
Page	A1
Era	JDF SAR era
Document type	news report
Original article	Three men disappeared as Sooke River rose, search continues for third man ↗ (plus 1 more original link)
Source	ProQuest Digital Times Colonist via GVPL (bulk export 2026-07-16)
Accessed	2026-07-16
Licensing	ref-only
Record confidence	confirmed

Archivist's note

This is the page that settles conflict C-14. ProQuest records a Times Colonist item on 2020-02-04 at page A1; the archive separately holds a 2020-02-04 page filed as A2. Both are real: this is the A1 front-page report, recovered from the bulk export, and the A2 page is a separate scan. The page-number discrepancy was not an error in either record. This page was recovered from inside the ProQuest bulk export already held in the archive, where it had been listed as referenced but not held.

The clipping

Scan of Times Colonist, page A1, 4 February 2020 — the full page, shown because the article region could not be verified — The full page. The article region could not be verified automatically, so the whole page is shown rather than risk a clipping that cuts off the article. the whole page is shown; the article region within it has not been isolated.

Read the original online

Three men disappeared as Sooke River rose, search continues for third man ↗ free to read
Web version of this print article. Verified freely accessible. Tested 2026-08-06.
https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/three-men-disappeared-as-sooke-river-rose-search-continues-for-third-man-4678867
ProQuest — the scanned page in the Times Colonist digital archive ↗ subscription or library card
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http://search.proquest.com.proxy.gvpl.ca/pdntimescolonist/newspapers/february-4-2020page-a1/docview/2390181295/sem-2?accountid=6051

These links leave this archive and point at the publisher. They may change or disappear — the scan held here is the archival copy.

Files

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Archive notes

This is a full newspaper page and carries unrelated stories as well as the article summarised here. The text is the OCR made from the ProQuest bulk export during the 2026 research phase, not a fresh pass. SENSITIVE: multiple deaths. Recovered from page 82 of the bulk export. Resolves conflict C-14 - see docs/conflicts.md.

Record id 2020-02-04-times-colonist-pa1-sooke-river-farr. Original file in the project archive: 02_articles/2026-07-16_proquest_bulk_export_50_articles_2012-2026.pdf (page 82).

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In the timeline

4 February 2020Juan de Fuca search-and-rescue and RCMP continued the search for a missing man on the Monday.