Local Merritt woman Lalie Honeywell went missing in May of this year and has not yet been found.
Honeywell was last seen on May 11 at around 6pm outside of the Double D Inn on Nicola Ave. She was reported as missing the next day and local RCMP put out a request for anyone with information regarding Honeywell’s whereabouts.
On May 14, personal items believed to belong to Honeywell were found near the Nicola River, which prompted Merritt RCMP to conduct a search of the riverbanks. Nicola Valley Search and Rescue (SAR) were called in to do a search of the river itself, with support by air from Kelowna RCMP Air Services. However, no clues were uncovered in the search.
Merritt RCMP detachment provided the Herald with an update into the investigation of Honeywell’s disappearance.
“We have no reason, no information leading us to believe that Lalie didn’t go into the river, it seems like she did,” said Cpl. Derrick Francis.
“We’ve exhausted many of the avenues outside of that. We checked bank records and all that stuff, but we do believe she went in the river and now it’s a matter of just hoping we find her. The strong assumption is that she went into the river, based on the information that we have, and so we were waiting for the river to come down. It did subside a bit so we did a riverbank search two weeks ago, on July 9, near the Double D Inn where we could walk, and then we also flew the river that same day all the way down to the Nooaitch reserve, looking because the visibility was improving.”
Nothing was discovered in the helicopter flyover and Cpl. Francis said there has been no further search conducted since that day.
“No clues at all, no clothing, nothing of interest,” said Francis.
“That was kind of the last thing that’s been done. We update the family fairly regularly; we have an open communication with the family so they can call and ask us questions. We’ve taken some familial DNA so if there is a body that ever shows up, we can always compare and make an identification.”
If the river drops any lower over the course of the summer, RCMP will conduct another search for Honeywell, but note that there is likely only one outcome at this stage.
“We were hoping, except for finding her alive, that she was somewhere maybe near where she fell in and we would find her quickly,” said Cpl. Francis.
“We really don’t want a member of the public to find her, we would rather we find her, that’s why we’ve gone out a number of times. Because it can be quite upsetting to locate, obviously. But so far, we’ve been unsuccessful on that end. So now, the theory is that we have to wait until the river goes down even more, or maybe she was swept quite a ways downstream.”
