A man who was reported missing more than five weeks ago was found alive Tuesday after he was recognized by two men in the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada.
Sam Benastick, 20, went missing on Oct. 19 after failing to return home from a 10-day fishing and hiking trip in the scenic Redfern-Keily Park in the northern Rocky Mountains. His sister, Kate, wrote in a GoFundMe that the trip had been a solo one. “Our family is devastated and is determined to find him,” she wrote at the time.
Benastick was recognized by the two men while walking along a service road with two sticks to support himself, a statement from the RCMP said. He had cut open a sleeping bag to wrap around his legs for warmth. According to the BBC, temperatures in the area had dropped to as low as -4F (-20C). A search-and-rescue team operation had already been called off and it seemed all hope was lost.
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“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome. After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this was would not be the outcome,” said Corporal Madonna Saunderson of the RCMP in a statement.
The circumstances of his disappearance are still not known, but Benastick told police that he had lived in his car for a couple of days before walking to a creek where he camped for approximately two weeks. His supplies included a tarp, backpack and some camping supplies.
According to the RCMP, he moved from the creek down the valley and built a shelter in a dried-out creek bed. He then made his way to the spot “where he flagged down the two men and was taken to safety.” The two men took him to a hospital where he is now recovering.
“He was in pretty bad shape but he’s alive,” Mike Reid, the general manager of an inn where Benastick’s family stayed for more than 20 days while searching for him, told CNN.
Benastick’s uncle, Al Benastick, told CBC his nephew was suffering “frostbite and some smoke inhalation.”
