50 | March• 2019
MISSING: DOG WALKER, 56, FEMALE
depression she’d made in the dirt un-
der some ferns.I’vehadenoughofthis,
she thought, too dehydrated to cry
anymore. Roxy came and lay beside
her, their bodies shaking in unison.
Deep in the night, Poitras could hear
the dogs growling. She knew there
were black bears roaming the area
but didn’t hear the crashing steps that
would forewarn the animal’s arrival.
The presence of three dogs upped
her chances of staving off an encoun-
ter, but she nevertheless focused on
remaining immobile. As the minutes
crept by, she thought of how scared
her family must be and what they
would do if she didn’t survive. “I’m
not ready to go,” she said out loud to
no one. She held her mouth open,
trying to catch the drops of falling rain
to ease her thirst. She’d never been a
religious person, but lying there in the
mud, she began to pray.
THENEXTMORNING,the rain
subsided,buttheairremainedthick
withmoisture.Thedogschewedon
sticks and licked their fur, eager for
water and warmth. Poitras was too
weak to stand. “Please find me,” she
whispered, as she heard a helicopter
fly overhead.
Aidon Pyne had arrived on site at
6am, and by 10.30am Poitras still
hadn’t been found. He’d been bush-
whacking through the forest for hours
with a five-person team fanned out in
a grid search, each member 30 metres
apart. “The minute you’re looking for
a non-responsive person, you need to
basically walk over them,” says Pyne.
As the team paused to reorient their
line, the leader, Darren Timmer, blew
three times on his whistle.
When Roxy suddenly began to
bark, Poitras trained her eyes on the
trees.“Whatareyoubarkingat?”she
asked the boxer. Timmer’s whistle
cut through the brush, so quiet atfirst Poitras thought she was hearing
things.“Hello?”sheyelled.“Hello!
I’m over here!”
Within five minutes, the rescue
crewdescendeduponherlikemuddy
angels, wrapping her in thermal
blankets and heating hot water on a
camp stove. Her clothes were so stiff
andwaterloggedtheyhadtobecut
from her body.
As rescuers peppered her withWITHIN FIVE MINUTES,
THE RESCUE CREW DESCENDEDUPONHER LIKE MUDDY ANGELS