Local hunters and tactical forces from Alberta and across British Columbia joined about 60 officers already hunting for suspected child abductor Randall Peter Hopley.
Residents of Sparwood are on edge knowing Hopley is not in police custody, and people have been buying home alarm systems to possibly prevent another child in the area being taken.
“I live up in the heights,” said hunter Jason Grywacheski who was searching for Hopley on Monday with his six-year-old son. “Five, six hundred metres from the residence where little Kienan was taken, and I have seen that individual in my cul-de-sac and walking behind my house, and it is nerve-wracking knowing that he’s probably seen my kids a time or two.”
Local hunters say Hopley knows this terrain well. They don’t believe he has any food or money, but they do feel that he is in close range.
“There’s hundreds of guys out hunting too and they’re watching,” said searcher Bernie Grywacheski when asked about the number of places to hide in the Sparwood wilderness.
Hopley has not returned to an abandoned house where residents say they have seen him before.
Residents are concerned and scared that their children may go missing.
“I try to stay at home, just because if you don’t watch,” said Teresa Tippel, tapering off as she tried to hold back tears.
RCMP are searching trailers, sheds, and houses, inside and out.
The community still has many questions about how this investigation was handled and why Hopley hasn’t been caught.
Hopley’s mother is begging her son to turn himself in.
“I want you now just to come on home and we’ll do some talking together and I hope you’re well. Please Randy. Come on home.”
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