Bill and Dan make the pair. Two fifty -year -old strong people who interact with the complicity and the faults of an old couple. One is American, the other Australian.
The two divers vibrate from a town passion for the missions in which they invest, under the banner of Exploring with a mission. Under their governs, the OBNL has set itself the objective of offering a little serenity to families bereaved by the unresolved disappearance of a loved one. Their roadmap is impressive – nearly twenty cases elucidated since 2017.
“It is not always us who find them, but by lifting new information, bringing back files in the news, we make things happen,” argues Bill McIntosh.
The fact remains that during the last two weeks, it is the work of their small team and their magic touch that allowed the authorities to recover the vehicle and the body of Robert J. Long, 62, disappeared in 2010, in Long Island, New York; Then those of Yvon Guévin, Friday, in Center-du-Québec, himself disappeared in 2014, 75 years at the time.
The two divers and their cameraman, who documents research to fuel their social networks, have drawn a roadmap which must lead them to the four corners of Quebec in the next two weeks.
The route is marked out by almost a dozen unsolved cases. Armed with advanced equipment – sonars, magnetic line, diving equipment, kayak and zodiac – they aims to bring a little hope to families, or even allow them to close the door on questions that have remained too long – as Friday, with the relatives of Yvon Guérin.
The “big common sense”
When you ask Bill McIntosh what allows them to succeed where the authorities were not successful, he evokes the “big sense” – “common sense!»
“We always start from the simplest hypothesis: where did the person come out?” Where was it? What were the obstacles on his way? Where has it been missing a curve? What was she thinking about? ”
— Bill McIntosh, diver for exploring with a mission
It is such an approach, twinned with a topographic research work, supporting archive satellite images, which allowed them to find Yvon Guévin, Friday … after five minutes of research. “He missed the curve and finished his race in the river, it’s as simple as that,” observes Dan Pitchard.
And when they are asked about what pushes them to thus embark on the trace of disappeared, which we hardly hear about, the two divers respond in unison: “families”, hand on the heart, heart on hand, with an equal mixture of adventurous spirit and kindness.
A Saturday filled with hope
Saturday morning, barely 9 am, under a sun which was already weigning, the three stooges put their boat in the water, on the edge of the highway 40. An old boat ramp which threatens to disappear under the vegetation at the 174 exit was an avenue that the trio wanted to scratch from the list of possibilities.
If Mélissa Blais stopped at the door of Mauricie, if she had fallen asleep while taking the exit, or if someone had tried to make her disappear with her vehicle, if, if … the equipped wanted to have a clear heart before engaging in more plausible hypotheses, further from the highway.
The detour of an hour. Already, everyone is on large drops. The sonars have detected an anomaly in the swampy funds. The magnet is launched in the water. The case turns out to be without significance. “We don’t have much more than five feet deep … There is nothing here.”
In the meantime, a couple stops to approach us. In an exchange where English and French arrest as they can, the two passers -by argue that the Toyota de Mélissa Blais can only be under the railway bridge, at the end of Avenue Dalcourt, in Louiseville.
Bill McIntosh, who had surveyed the river last year in a recognition tour, expresses a doubt, but agrees to go and put the boat in the water to eliminate another possibility.
The detour will last a good three hours. Little by little, the relatives of Mélissa Blais appear. His brother Yves, his mother Diane, and other family members still. “It is certain that when they found the tank yesterday, it did something to us,” they express in turn.
The difficult case of Mélissa Blais
However, the case of Mélissa Blais thwarts “the big sense”, points Bill McIntosh. The young mother left a Louiseville bar at 2:30 a.m. in more or less troubled circumstances, after consuming a certain amount of alcohol, depending on the various testimonies. Difficult to establish a journey which it would have taken immediately or to assume from its state of mind.
On the wolf river, under the railway bridge, Bill and Dan, however, locate the remains of a vehicle in the river. “American Motors Canada, it dates from the 1940s, 50s, perhaps 60 … We took the serial number, it may be linked to another disappearance, but it is not a Toyota.”
While mercury now is around 35 degrees, the three volunteers take stock with the family. “Where she would have liked to take refuge if she was not going well,” asked Bill to loved ones. The question is welcomed with shoulders and uncertainties – a thick mystery continues to hover over the disappearance of the 34 -year -old woman.
We resign ourselves to continuing the research on the side of the Masson bridge, where divers had surveyed the bottom of the waters in Tatillons, in the fall of 2022. “They may have missed it,” said some.
On site, the prospect of a road trip appears most improbable in the eyes of the three experts. But faced with the hopes of the family, and despite fatigue, exploring with a mission divers land their zodiac of its trailer again and embark on the river.
Again, an anomaly of the funds will be without consequences. On the bridge, all come together. “We have eliminated the possibilities nearby, we will have to widen the perimeter, go from 10 kilometers, to 20 or 30,” advance divers.
But it will be for the next time. At the very end of the afternoon, Bill, Dan and Kade fold luggage. The divers take the direction of Laval, where Robert St-Louis, 42 years old at the time of events, has been missing since 1988. They promise to return.
