By Jill Sperling

Volunteers determined to keep searching for missing Merritt-area cowboy

Jan 31, 2019 | 3:11 PM

MERRITT — The search for the missing Merritt-area cowboy has entered its fourth day. 

There are more than 50 search and rescue members looking for 32-year-old Benjamin Tyner. A helicopter is being used to search by air and trackers are trying to determine where the rancher may have gone. 

Around 20 cowboys from local ranches and volunteers from the Lower Nicola Indian Band have also joined the search. 

“There’s actually a total of 55 Search and Rescue members from the whole Southern B.C. here,” said Lynne Broekhuizen, SAR manager for Nicola Valley Search and Rescue. 

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Each volunteer searcher spends eight to 10 hours out in the back-country at a time, looking for any sign of the 32-year-old Nicola Ranch Manager. 

“They’ve got people out there that are high-level trackers that are out there looking and some that are certified for air-spotting from the helicopter,” Broekhuizen said.

Tyner is believed to have gone out on horseback Sunday, and has not been heard from since. 

His horse, however, was found by loggers Monday afternoon. 

“We’re still finding tracks of where the horse might have been because it had lost a rein,” said Cst. Tracy Dunsmore of the Merritt RCMP. “There’s very distinguishable drag marks, anytime we can find that. But there’s so many wild horses up there and trackers now and searchers so there’s a lot of footprints on the ground.”

There has been no sign of the missing cowboy riding to the search area from the Nicola Ranch and RCMP are investigating a theory that Tyner and his horse were dropped off Sunday. 

The theory has yet to turn up any leads. 

“We’ve talked to anybody that may have known him, associated, put it out to the media asking if anybody did give him a ride, but we haven’t had any response from that,” Dunsmore said. 

Weather conditions have cooperated for searchers so far, but there are fears that the weather may shift. 

Many of the search and rescue teams have come from outside the region, receiving no pay for their efforts. 

If Tyner is found safe and sound, it will all be worth it. 

“I’m just looking forward to a good outcome from this, from our perspective, and our crews will keep going until we’re told that we can’t go any longer,” Broekhuizen said.