With the help of search dogs, volunteer group continues nearly 2-year search for missing B.C. woman

Mike Ritcey, a retired paramedic, has been gathering regularly with fellow dog owners in Kamloops, B.C., for more than a year.

However, their reasons go well beyond socializing with their beloved pets.

The group of four people and four dogs has been volunteering for Search, Recovery and Detection K9s (SRD K9s) of B.C., a non-profit organization that conducts search operations for missing individuals in the province. 

One of the people they are actively looking for is Shannon White, a Kamloops resident who has not been seen since Nov. 1, 2021.

Ritcey says volunteers are hopeful their search will eventually produce results.

"You just got to keep going — it's a pretty high-stakes search," he told CBC's Shelley Joyce. "We have to bring some answers to the family."

White left her home in Kamloops's Lower Sahali neighbourhood around 8 a.m. the day she went missing.

According to the Mounties, White typically arrived at her workplace — a car dealership on Notre Dame Drive — by 8:30 a.m. but never showed up that morning.

A day later, on Nov. 2, her Jeep was discovered at the intersection of Nicola Street and Third Avenue, across from the Royal Inland Hospital.

Investigators received information indicating White's SUV had travelled west of the city for approximately 45 minutes, after she was supposed to have arrived at work.

Like a family member

The one-year-old volunteer group has conducted over 30 search operations for White across various parts of the city, particularly the northern and western regions and locations she frequented.

Randy Macleod, a volunteer and retired paramedic, who works with his three-year-old Labrador, Mara, says volunteers try to thoroughly cover all the areas suggested by the police.

"We're going to be out in the wilderness with our dogs anyway, so we like to pick an area that we feel that we haven't completely covered yet and spend a little bit more time, and it's one less area to look [at] next time," Mcleod said.

According to the SRD K9s of B.C. website, all four search dogs — Ranger, Mara, Rogue and Stella — have undergone training to search and detect narcotics, human remains in wilderness areas.

In addition to looking for White, the volunteer group has also assisted in searching for other missing individuals, including Ryan Shtuka, last seen at Sun Peaks Ski Resort in February 2018, Ben Tyner, who has been missing in Merritt since January 2019 and Madison Scott, whose remains were discovered near Vanderhoof last month after having been missing for 12 years.

RCMP say cases of White, Shtuka and Tyner remain under investigation.

Macleod says volunteers will keep searching. They know how important it is for the family.

"One of the things that keeps me going is you cannot help but imagine if it was a family member," he said.

"If it was after a year or two or three or four, it would be really difficult to think that nobody's still looking, that nobody cares or nobody's still interested — and we are [still looking]."

Her father Gerald White, who lives in Hamilton, Ont., says he cannot come to visit Kamloops regularly, so he has to rely on the volunteer group as his ears and eyes and feet on the ground.

He says he still remembers her smiling face and misses her every day.

"She was just a friendly, outgoing [person]," he said. "We pray that we find her — and she's always in our thoughts."