‘It gives answers’: US-based dive team recounts vehicle recovery from North Thompson River in Kamloops

“It doesn’t matter how aggressive the current is,” Leisek said. “The current controls how far the car goes down while it’s floating. Once it hits the bottom of the river bed or the lake bed, it stays in there. It’s like if you step in mud in a boot and the boot stays there but your foot comes out.”

“And as well, the longer the vehicle sits there, the more it fills with silt and it gets heavier.”

Leisek adds Adventures With Purpose was prepared to recover the vehicle last Saturday (Sept. 26), but noted they ran into “scheduling and bureaucracy issues” with the RCMP over who should do the work. Those were eventually resolved and on Wednesday, the recovery operation went ahead.

“We’re pretty comfortable with swift water, and we dive things like this often – the Mississippi River and the Bayou,” Leisek said. “It was disappointing they had us hit pause as there was not going to be a lower time of flow rate on that river. Right now was the time to do it because if that car sits there any longer, more sediment will go on top of it and more evidence could be lost.”

“After we got permission, we went down the line we had marked and hooked up to the vehicle. The rotator and the flat bed showed up shortly after and we got the vehicle out. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the vehicle.”

Jepkoech, 24, was behind the wheel of the vehicle and she is presumed to have drowned, though a 21-year-old passenger was rescued by three people who jumped into action. One of those bystanders, Chaz Peterhans, told CFJC Today the vehicle narrowly missed a bench before it plunged into the river.

Byron Leisek emerging from the North Thompson River in Kamloops along with the red sedan that Benina Jepkoech was driving when it went into the water. (Image Credit: Adventures With Purpose/Facebook)

Leisek told CFJC Today the vehicle was found at a depth of around 12 feet, less than half the 25-foot-deep water faced by rescuers back in May.

“The back window was busted out and the hydrodynamics [with] all that water rushing in can actually suck things back in, so if she was close by or half way out, there could have been a chance that she got sucked back in,” Leisek said. “That’s what we were hoping for, because the car was about halfway full of sand and silt.”

“We didn’t know when the vehicle was pulled if there were any remains inside because of the amount of silt that was in there. She could have been buried inside.”

Adventures With Purpose uses technology like sonar to find missing people and their vehicles in the water. The organization doesn’t charge families or law enforcement, but documents all its searches online.

“We specialize in people missing with their vehicles, specifically because what we’re looking for is a vehicle,” Leisek said. “If they happen to be in the vehicle, the case solved. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. We don’t go searching specifically for remains of bodies.”

While Leisek and his team won’t be part of this investigation any longer, he hopes this vehicle recovery will lead to a bit of closure for Jepkoech’s friends and family.

“Sometimes, we go into an area and search multiple locations without an answer of a vehicle even. At least it gives answers to the family of where she isn’t. In this case, yes we’re halfway there I think. The vehicle is recovered and hopefully she will be soon.”

Kamloops RCMP said their investigation is still ongoing, and they’re urging people to report any potential sightings of Jepkoech.

“The investigation continues,” Kamloops RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dana Napier said. “We are still hoping to find the driver from this incident and then we will examine the vehicle to see if there is any evidence that we can glean from that.”

“Our heart goes out to her family and friends,” added Leisek. “We wish we could have brought her home. Please keep your eye out for any sign of Benina and reach out to the RCMP with any tips of where she might be.”

Aerial view of Schubert Drive with the red sedan on a flat bed truck on Sept. 30, 2026. (Image Credit: Adventures With Purpose/Facebook)

by Victor Kaisar

‘It gives answers’: US-based dive team recounts vehicle recovery from North Thompson River in Kamloops

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