Search for missing teens continues in northern Sask.

The search will continue on land and in the air for five teenagers who have been missing in northern Saskatchewan for nearly a week.

On Tuesday the five teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 went out on Reindeer Lake, just outside of Southend which is 220 kilometres northeast of La Ronge. RCMP report that they were notified on Thursday after the teenagers failed to return.

A major search is now underway involving community volunteers, Civil Aviation Search and Rescue, and RCMP officers.

Vaughn Skogstad with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASRA) said that they went into the air on Saturday .

“The crew spotted a couple of boats that were tied up to a dock that there shouldn’t have been any boats at,” he explained.

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“Then the RCMP and somebody from another community went over to check it out, and when they got there the next day the kids were not there.”

Mandy Maier, a spokesperson with the RCMP, said that the dock was attached to a privately owned lodge. 

“On Sunday when searchers went into the area, they observed that the lodge had been broken into with some supplies taken,” said Maier. “No one was at the lodge so we can’t specifically confirm that it was the youth at the lodge.” 

Maier added that RCMP do suspect however that it was the teens that had been at the lodge and had raided it for supplies, although they can’t speculate as to why the teens would have moved on. 

CASRA went back into the air on Sunday and searched most of the day with no success.

“We are going up again today and we will be continuing the search,” Skogstad said.

CASRA searches with an aircraft, pilot, navigator and two spotters.

“What we do is we will circle the whole lake but it’s a fairly large lake and so we just fly the shorelines and around the islands. We see if we can see any boats that are on the lake or any boats that are tied up on the shore,” Skogstad said.

“You look for smoke, anything out of the ordinary.”

Skogstad said that Reindeer Lake has typical northern Saskatchewan terrain with many islands, a lot of trees, and “bush pretty well all the way around.” 

The teens were raised in the north, he said.

“We are hoping that they are prepared but I really can’t say,” he said

RCMP reported that bad weather had hampered the search so far and no details have been released on the identity of the five children.

It was reported earlier Monday morning by another news source that the teens had been found, however RCMP has recently confirmed that they are still missing and the search continues. 

Officers have also confirmed that the group consists of four boys and one girl. 

We will have more details on this search and rescue operation as they become available. 

With files from James Bowler/paNOW Staff. 

news@panow.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow