Search and Rescue workers have found a professional dog walker and her three dogs in the woods of Coquitlam after the woman disappeared.
Annette Poitras, 56, was last seen in the area near Plateau Boulevard and Parkway Boulevard on Westwood plateau Monday. She parked her car beyond the first gate on an access road.
On Wednesday afternoon, Coquitlam Search and Rescue announced they found Poitras and the three dogs she was walking.
Poitras, who was described as fit and active, walks dogs every day, most often twice a day and was familiar with the trails in the area. She had three dogs with her at the time
Chloe: a border collie, (this is Annette’s dog)
Roxy: a young boxer
Bubba: a 13 year old puggle (beagle/ pug cross)
While she was wearing hiking boots and was dressed appropriately, we do not believe she was carrying any additional equipment with her.
Eagle Mountain is a maze of trails, old access roads, power line right of ways, and pipelines. It’s regularly used by hikers, dog walkers, mountain bikers, dirt bikers and 4×4 drivers. Coquitlam SAR has access to the most up-to-date information on the trails in the area and our mapping experts have gathered information from many sources to compile this list.
Cell phone contact on Eagle Mountain and any wilderness area is not guaranteed.
On Monday evening Coquitlam SAR searched all of the trails in a 2km radius of where she parked the car. RCMP Dog handlers were in the area and attempted to track her and the dogs.
On Tuesday morning they used two helicopters, including RCMP Air 1 equipped with a FLIR (forward looking infra red) camera and rescuers began bringing in searchers from throughout the region – as far away as Mission and the Sunshine Coast.
Coquitlam SAR issued a special request Wednesday before Poitras was found for the public not to use drones as the airspace was needed to be cleared for helicopters.
Reports from the searchers yesterday included confusion about dog tracks, barking dogs, and people they encountered in the area. They asked people not to go into the area or with dogs as it could impede the search.
It’s not known yet what happened and how Poitras was found.
