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Bumper spotted in river
Times Colonist4 February 2020p. A2JDF SAR era
Times Colonist, p. A2, 4 February 2020 ref-only
Summary
Refocusing search efforts to the river led to the discovery of a truck in the water and two bodies along the shoreline downstream. Juan de Fuca search-and-rescue members were joined by groups from Ladysmith and Cowichan, as well as Metchosin firefighters, and an RCMP dive team. Jensen's stepmother, Carole Rittaler, said Blackmore's father told her he saw the young men playing video games at about 10:30 p.m. on the Friday; shortly after, he heard the front door close and they were gone, without telling anyone.
Details
| Headline | “Bumper spotted in river” |
|---|---|
| Publication | Times Colonist |
| Date | 4 February 2020 |
| Page | A2 |
| Era | JDF SAR era |
| Document type | news report |
| Source | ProQuest Digital Times Colonist via GVPL |
| Accessed | 2026-07-16 |
| Licensing | ref-only |
| Record confidence | confirmed |
Archivist's note
The Sooke River drownings of February 2020 are the heaviest single event in the archive's modern record. The Sooke News Mirror leadership profile published nine days later (2020-02-13) was written in its aftermath and contains the team's candid passage on the psychological cost of body recoveries. The ProQuest bulk export indexes four further Times Colonist pages from the same series - 2020-02-04 A1, 2020-02-06 A1, 2020-02-25 A1 - that are not held as scans; see gaps_articles_without_scan.csv.
The clipping
