Search for Darius will continue through weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on September 27, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The search for Darius Macdougall continued Friday and the Alberta RCMP reassured they will not start scaling back the search any time soon. 

“As of today, we have additional resources onsite, which includes 60 TSG officers (Tactical Support Group). Their main role will be to supplement search efforts,” said Cpl. Gina Slaney.

She said the Municipality has set up a Crowsnest Pass Community Support Center at the curling rink in Blairmore, with the purpose to give a safe place where concerned community members can go to support each other. 

“These centers foster a sense of belonging and connection, especially with these incidents which are extremely hard for everyone involved. We will have representatives there from the search team to provide support, but this is not a place for media to attend to ask questions,” said Slaney. 

Adam Kennedy, SAR Alberta spokesperson and Provincial training manager said the search efforts are continuing. 

“The current average search radius is approximately 5 kilometers, with some searches extending out to approximately 10 kilometers. A total surface area of approximately 7 square kilometers has been thoroughly searched multiple times,” said Kennedy. 

He said overnight, resources were on-scene searching including the RCMP helicopter, dogs and drones with infrared and night vision capabilities.

“Approximately 120 personnel from Alberta and British Columbia remain on-scene today, joined by new resources arriving from Saskatchewan,” said Kennedy. 

He said that as searchers push into previously unsearched areas, there is a continual consideration of the resources required. 

“To meet the needs of new areas, horse search and rescue resources are now deployed from the Greenview Search and Rescue team,” said Kennedy. 

When asked about the morale, since they add another day to the search, Kennedy said nothing has changed, as everyone is still very optimistic about finding Darius at this point and in terms of searching efforts during the weekend, Kennedy said it is not slowing down. 

“It’s actually quiet the opposite, it actually being ramped up over the weekend. We have asked for all available SAR resources across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said Kennedy. 

He said they are anticipating more volunteers will be available as they head into the weekend and therefore expect those numbers to bolster over the weekend. 

Kennedy specified that the extra help will not be coming from members of the community, as that could potentially take resources away from the search if someone was to get injured. 

“Additionally untrained searchers run a real risk of contaminating any evidence or clues in the scene that might point us in the direction of finding Darius,” said Kennedy.