Search for hiker missing in Sooke to resume with new information from her smartwatch
McDevitt is described as a white woman standing 5' tall, weighing 105 pounds, with a very small build. Police say she has alopecia and may be wearing a wig or have short, rainbow-coloured hair. (Victoria police)
Melissa McDevitt, 39, went missing six months ago after entering a remote hiking trail in Sooke. New information has led volunteers and the Sooke RCMP to resume that search on Saturday.
The information has been gathered from Melissa’s smartwatch, showing the route that she hiked the day before.
The Sooke RCMP now believe she may have returned the following day to hike the same trail, this time pushing farther into the backcountry.
The last known pictures of McDevitt were captured on a surveillance camera on Dec. 9, 2022, at a nearby fish hatchery along Charters River. Those pictures show her walking into the trails as she began her hike.
At the time, her family could not get ahold of her. They contacted police who found her car abandoned in a parking lot in the area around the trails. It’s an area McDevitt was known to frequent often.
An exhaustive nine-day search followed but McDevitt was never found.
At the time, her father flew to Vancouver Island from North Carolina to help in the search that involved 17 search and rescue agencies, a police dog unit and an RCMP helicopter.
That search was called off on Dec. 19 after finding no trace of the missing woman.
Tom McDevitt says a small army of volunteers managed to obtain the new information from cloud recording from his daughter's watch.
“One of our members of our group who is pretty technologically savvy, using passwords and logins that I knew, until he hit the one that went in and all of her hikes and runs were documented,” said McDevitt.
That information gives searchers a clearer picture of her hiking patterns and which trails she used.
Search teams will return to the Sea to Sea Regional Park on Saturday in the hopes this new information will turn up something that can finally give McDevitt's family some closure.
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