Monday, January 07, 2008

Avalanche body found. Identified 01/08

RCMP NEWS RELEASE 2008-01-08 07:25:06
Big White Ski Resort Avalanche - Sunday Jan. 6th, 2008

The Kelowna Rural RCMP are continuing their investigation, alongside the BC Coroner's Service, into the incident at the Big White Ski Resort which resulted in a number of people being caught up in an avalanche. The search late yesterday afternoon resulted in searchers locating the body of missing Australian man, Leigh BARNIER, in the slide area. BARNIER was working at the Big White Ski Resort for the winter and had been snowboarding when the avalanche occurred. He was not in a working capacity when the incident occurred.

by Wayne Moore -Jan 7, 2008 / 4:01 pm CASTANET
A body has been recovered from an area of Big White hit by an avalanche late Sunday morning.
RCMP Constable, Julie Rattee, says searchers recovered a body shortly after 3 p.m. Monday. "At this time, police are trying to determine the identity of the individual found and are not in a position to confirm whether or not it is the body of the reported missing snowboarder," says Rattee. An avalanche hit the Parachute Bowl area of Big White about 11 a.m. Sunday. Two people were rescued, unharmed, shortly after the avalanche. Leigh Barnier, 21, an employee with a private firm at Big White, was reported missing late Sunday afternoon. Rattee says Barnier, a native of Australia, was last seen about a half hour before the slide. “He advised his friends he was going to do ‘one more run’ but it was unclear where he was headed with his snowboard." The case is now in the hands of the BC Coroner's Service.

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