Body of missing man found in Okanagan Lake after 23 days

On Sept. 22, Kyle Yrjola went paddleboarding with his girlfriend, Jaycee Martin, off Fintry Provincial Park on Okanagan Lake.

“It was a beautiful day, calm waters. The weather was perfect. Not even a single wave, just smooth sailing. It was beautiful,” said Martin, 23 days after the incident.

The couple paddled out to the middle of the lake before deciding to turn back as the sun began to set. They were about two thirds of the way back when the weather began to change.

“The wind kind of started picking up. We thought, okay, we can get through this,” said Martin.

“I said, ‘okay, hold on, babe. Like there’s some big waves coming,’” Martin recalled. “And sure enough, they just came and they just took him from me so fast.”

At this point, Yrjola was off the paddleboard and in the water. Martin tried to get the board to him, but with the paddles swept away, the board drifted out of reach. Within moments, she lost sight of her boyfriend.

“We called 911,” Martin said. “They told us to stay on our paddleboards.”

When police picked her up on the east side of Okanagan Lake, Martin thought Yrjola would be found somewhere along the shore.

“I didn’t even want them to pick me up at first, because I was so close to the shore. I kept telling them, ‘no, go find my boyfriend, like he’s out there.’”

That changed when a volunteer Hutterite dive team from Manitoba arrived in the Okanagan to help with the search.

Led by Manuel Maendel, the team brought specialized sonar equipment to scan the depths of Okanagan Lake, searching for signs of Yrjola.

“As Hutterites, when someone is in trouble and we see them struggling, we want to reach out and help,” Maendel said. “It doesn’t matter where or how.”

The team drove for two days to reach the Okanagan. With a boat that is fitted with GPS guidance technology normally used in farming, the crew followed precise, straight lines across the water while scanning the lakebed.

Maendel said the idea came from using GPS systems to guide farm machinery through fields. The same technology helps the team methodically cover search areas.