A fellow hiker took this picture of 53-year-old Donald Stoliker the day he disappeared. Stolikers body was found south of Grasslands National Park, area RCMP have confirmed.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
Southern Alberta Newspapers
SWIFT CURRENT
A five-day search for a missing hiker at the Grasslands National Park came to a tragic end on Monday.
Ponteix RCMP reported that Donald Stoliker, 63, was located deceased south of Grasslands National Park. The death of the Newburgh, Ont. man is not considered suspicious, but an investigation is ongoing with the assistance of the Provincial Coroner’s Office.
Stoliker had last been seen in the Grasslands National Park on Aug. 1. A large-scale co-ordinated search effort had been underway since Aug. 2 by RCMP, Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, members of the Search and Rescue Saskatchewan Association of Volunteers, along with local volunteers.
They were searching by foot, vehicle, fixed-wing aircraft and horseback, and on Monday a helicopter was brought in to join the search efforts.
The search came to an end on Monday after the focus of their operations shifted to areas outside the Grasslands National Park southern boundary in the Rural Municipality of Val Marie.
