Missing person Kevin 'Bear' Henry found after more than 2 months in Vancouver Island bush
Missing person Kevin "Bear" Henry has been located, after spending months in a wooded area in mid-Vancouver Island.
Henry, 37, was last in contact with family members on Nov. 27, and was reported missing to Victoria police on Dec. 11.
A video posted on the Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon shows Henry at a Tim Hortons in Lake Cowichan with others.
A statement made on behalf of Henry's family says that Henry's van got stuck in a wooded area at the mountain top of the Caycuse Main.
The position was out of sight of helicopters that had flown during searches for Henry, who identifies as Two-Spirited.
"Bear lived on beans and snow and while they’ve lost some weight, they were looking energetic and happy to have been found," reads the statement.
"Bear and their family are ecstatic that Bear is home and are asking for privacy over the next few days."
Lake Cowichan RCMP say they were called to the Tim Hortons around 3:15 p.m. and confirmed that Henry was safe.
"We understand there are many questions with respect to how and where the individual survived," said the RCMP detachment in a statement.
"The RCMP is now working to determine more specific details but will leave it to the missing person to determine how, or if those details are shared publicly."
In the video, Henry can be heard speaking with someone over the phone about how they arrived back into town.
"I'm good. I'm sore but I'm (relieved)," the video shows Henry saying.
"I was at Fairy Creek," they said. "So I walked back from where my van was. It took me like two days and I got to the top of this bridge that goes into Caycuse. It's like a little campground, like a backcountry campground, and I got to the top of that and these two loggers came randomly."
Henry says they flagged down the loggers, who picked them up and drove them into civilization. But it was during the ride down that Henry began to realize the scope of how long they'd been missing.
"They're like, 'Are you Bear?' And I said, 'How do you know that?' I told them my name's Kevin," Henry said of the loggers.
"And they're like, 'There's missing posters for you all over Lake Cowichan and Duncan.' And I was like, 'Wait, what day is it?' And they said Tuesday. And I said, 'What month is it?' And they said 'February 9th.' And I said, 'Hey I've been gone for three months?'"
Henry said they had no backcountry experience after learning what day it was.
"And they said, 'Well I think you do now.' And I said, 'You're right, I totally do.' And I said, 'I'm never going back there again,'" Henry said on the phone, laughing.
The loggers also gave Henry some cash to buy food after dropping them off at the lake Cowichan Tim Hortons, according to the statement issued on behalf of their family.
Large-scale searches by volunteers and RCMP took place in the months that Henry was missing, including searches by aircraft.
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