The remains of a 38-year-old woman who went missing after going hiking near Sooke Potholes almost a year earlier were located on the Wednesday by a group of people who had been searching for her, Sooke RCMP said. The group found Melissa McDevitt's body in thick vegetation in an area that searchers had previously targeted, police said. Sooke RCMP Staff Sgt. Greg Willcocks, the detachment commander, said a group known as Mindful of Melissa on Instagram put in "a remarkable amount of effort" to locate McDevitt over the past year. The Search and Recovery Dog Association [and] Mindful of Melissa played an integral role, and SARDAA members located the remains. McDevitt was reported missing on 12 December 2022 after her vehicle was found in the parking lot of the Charters [Creek fish hatchery].
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
“Remains found of hiker who went missing near Sooke” Not recorded in the catalogue — read from the clipping image. Check it against the clipping below before quoting it.
The end of the longest search in the archive, and an unusual one: after two official searches involving more than seventeen agencies, the remains were found by a volunteer group formed by the missing woman's family and friends, working with a search dog association. The Sooke News Mirror team profile of January 2024, also held here, credits Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue as instrumental in locating her; this Times Colonist report credits the volunteer group and SARDAA. Both accounts are recorded. 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
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.
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ProQuest — the scanned page in the Times Colonist digital archive ↗subscription or library card Recorded exactly as captured, including the Greater Victoria Public Library proxy address — it needs a GVPL card or a ProQuest subscription. Without one, search ProQuest for the document ID in the address. This link opens through the Greater Victoria Public Library and asks for a library card number before showing the page. Cards are free for Greater Victoria residents — sign up on the GVPL site; an online temporary card is enough for the digital databases. Outside Greater Victoria, ask your own library whether it offers the ProQuest Times Colonist archive. http://search.proquest.com.proxy.gvpl.ca/pdntimescolonist/newspapers/december-82023-page-a3/docview/2901915866/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.
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: a death. Recovered from page 36 of the bulk export. The organisation name is rendered variously as "Search and Recovery Dog Aspe" and "SARDAV"/"SARDAA" in the OCR; the exact name should be checked against the scan.
Record id 2023-12-08-times-colonist-pa3-mcdevitt-remains-found. Original file in the project archive: 02_articles/2026-07-16_proquest_bulk_export_50_articles_2012-2026.pdf (page 36).
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In the timeline
13 December 2022Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue personnel returned to the mobile command base during the search for Melissa McD
