The search has been called off indefinitely for a 37-year-old man whose snowmobile plunged into Lake of Two Mountains, killing his 13-year-old boy.
After scouring an area 1.5-kilometres long by 150 metres wide after the pair went missing Sunday while on a snowmobile trip, local police and SQ divers have determined the search is too dangerous to continue due to rapids in the area, said Const. Christopher Harding from the Deux-Montagnes regional police force.
Searchers were unable to use sonar equipment Tuesday due to freezing conditions as they searched for Roman Jukovitsky, explained Christopher Harding from the Deux-Montagnes regional police force.
“Because of the temperatures, some of the equipment being used is frozen – like the sonar equipment – so the officers from the dive team have been doing it more systematically through searching by eye. It’s a slower, longer process,” he said.
Two teams of three search divers entered the water at 9:30 a.m., at the point where they retrieved son Daniel’s body on Monday afternoon. Visibility is down to six feet, which made for a methodical search.
Certain death
An eyewitness said that he saw the snowmobile crash through the ice on Sunday, about the same time as the father and son went missing.
“Snowmobile clubs say once you’re in the water it’s almost certain death,” says CTV’s Herb Luft.
“Your clothing gets so heavy, you just plunge to the bottom.”
Daniel Breton, president of Les Links snowmobile club in Two Mountains, says this is a dangerous time of the year to be out on the lake.
“Every year, at the beginning of the year, we do have these type of tragedies,” he said on Tuesday.
“People just venture away from the marked trails.”
Facebook tributes
Tributes are pouring in for Daniel Jukovitsky, with several Facebook pages popping up to remember the promising young trumpet player from Ecole Secondaire Mont-Royal in the Town of Mount Royal.
One former classmate remembers Jukovitsky as a talented and funny boy who made people laugh.
“He’d be the sunshine, really, of the whole school and even if he was sad he’d put a smile on our faces,” said classmate Neusha Therian.
School in mourning
Brigitte Gauvreau of the Marguerite Bourgeoys school board tells CTV News that staff and students took the news quite hard. Teachers were informed about the boy’s death on Monday and students were being told on Tuesday.
There are five psychologists on hand, and some students are showing their grief by wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with the boy’s name. Some schoolmates have written Jukovitsky’s name on their skin, said Gauvreau.
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