The search for a missing senior is continuing more than eight months after he disappeared, with his family enlisting the help of a grassroots river patrol group to dredge city waterways.
“One of my fears was that, the longer it goes on, you would not see anything or hear anything about him and people would forget or think that he was found,” said Britt Moberg, whose father Earl Moberg has not been seen since December, when he wandered into northeast Winnipeg alone and disoriented from advanced dementia.
“We still haven’t recovered him or been able to have a funeral or anything. It’s probably going to be the public who finds him.”
SUPPLIED
Earl Moberg, 81, has been missing from the River East area since Dec. 12, 2023.
The missing senior’s family have asked Drag the Red to help locate the 81-year-old. Team leader Jillian Wilson said boat crews are already searching near Henderson Highway and the Perimeter Highway.
“We just want to bring people home and bring closure,” Wilson said. “Our team is full of compassion and commitment to be out there no matter what, and to give people hope.”
The volunteer organization, composed of around 25 people, operates five days a week when the river is accessible. Members dredge Winnipeg riverbeds and waterways in search of evidence of missing and murdered people — turning up clothing, weapons and sometimes human remains.
All items are documented, including details about when and where such materials are found, so if they are ever linked to missing people, searchers will know where to look. The most serious or suspicious items (such as a pair of women’s lingerie wrapped in duct tape, pulled from the depths last year) are submitted to police for further investigation, Wilson said.
While crews have not found evidence of the missing man, they have a description of the clothing he was last seen wearing and have been checking in with his family periodically to reassure them they are not alone, she said.
For Moberg, the support means the world.
“My dad’s story has been very sad and tragic, but having people from the community step up like this, it definitely gives me hope and it means a lot to our family that people care,” she said.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
Britt Moberg searched, along with her family, supporters and the Bear Clan, near the Red River and Chief Peguis Trail
for the remains of her father, Earl Moberg.
“These people are just volunteers, from what I understand. These people are actually taking their time to do this — to search for, not just my dad, but other missing people out there.”
Moberg believes her father is likely dead. She and her family are preparing to plan a funeral for him this winter, regardless of whether his remains are recovered, she said.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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