5-year-old still missing in Crowsnest Pass

By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Reporter

The search continues for Darius Macdougall.

The five-year-old was last seen on Sunday morning walking with his family approximately 2.5 miles south of the Island Lake Campground.

Cpl. Gina Slaney, a public information officer with the Alberta RCMP, says the police are being very thorough when it comes to finding any leads when it comes to the investigation. 

“We investigate all avenues when something like this happens. Some of the family members were with Darius when he was last seen so we’re going to interview them and we’re dealing with children as well so we have child forensic interviewers that know how to appropriately interview children. All of those things are being done and you never know that smallest tidbit of information from one of those family members might be able to assist us on something else that we could look for with regards to this investigation.”

Slaney added the possibility of any criminal activity has not been eliminated completely as of Tuesday afternoon.

“At this point, there’s no indication that any foul play is involved in this, but again, we keep our investigations very broad at this point, and we’re looking at every single possibility.”

More than 60 ground searchers are involved in the search with the assistance of RCMP drones, dogs and helicopters. Members of the public were asked not to volunteer in the search and rescue operation.

Adam Kennedy with Alberta Search and Rescue told media Tuesday that having trained professionals will make the operation go more smoothly.

“Using trained professional searchers like we’re receiving from the GSR teams throughout Alberta and BC, we’re able to put professional trained searchers on the ground, which will give us a much higher probability of detection per searcher than if we were to use members of the public. It’s likely the first search they’ve ever been involved in. It just gives us a much higher probability that we would have located Darius if he was in the search area. The other avenue is the safety aspect. It is hazardous terrain. We don’t always know the capabilities of the incoming volunteers. There’s the potential that if they become injured then we have to reroute some of our resources on ground to support that incident as opposed to continuing the search for Darius.”

While it’s been more than 48 hours since Macdougall was last seen, search and rescue workers are still optimistic that their search will be successful despite the long period of time and lower overnight temperatures. 

“There are some statistics to go behind this as far as survivability.” Kennedy explained. “We are still in the stage right now where we are still very variable. There’s no talk on the ground of anything other than a positive outcome.”