Image credit: RCMP

By Aaron Schulze

Found Safe Five Weeks Later

Five weeks later, Kamloops man found safe after going missing in the Northern Rockies

Nov 27, 2024 | 11:20 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops man who went missing in the Northern Rockies more than five weeks ago has been found safe.

Samuel Benastick, identified as a Kamloops local by Kamloops Search and Rescue (KSAR), was reported missing by his family on Oct. 19 after he didn’t return from a camping trip in Redfern-Keily Provincial Park. KSAR deployed a team to help find the 20-year-old man.

At around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 26), Northern Rockies RCMP say they were told that Benastick had been found by two men who were heading to the Redfern Lake trail for work. The men recognized Benastick and took him to a hospital where police confirmed him as being the missing man.

Image credit: RCMP

In a news release issued Wednesday, RCMP say Benastick told police he stayed in his car for a few days then walked to a creek mountainside where he camped out for 10-to-15 days. He then moved down the valley and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. Eventually, he flagged down the two men who recognized him.

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“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome. After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this would not be the outcome” Cpl. Madonna Saunderson, BC RCMP Communications spokesperson says.

Kamloops Search and Rescue deployed a team in the Northern Rockies to help find Samuel Benastick (Image credit: Kamloops Search and Rescue)

In a post to social media in October, KSAR says various search and rescue organizations put in up to 16 hours a day to find Samuel Benastick (Image credit: Kamloops Search and Rescue)