 At least 70 searchers are looking for Nadia Monaco on the ground and from above at Belair Provincial Forest. (Ross Romaniuk, QMI Agency)
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WINNIPEG - There was no sign Thursday of a missing diabetic Winnipeg woman in the Stead area, about 90 km northeast of the city, where she was last seen more than a day earlier.
And whether on foot, horseback or in a helicopter, everyone looking for the retired grandmother was clinging to hope she would be found alive.
At least 70 searchers, including RCMP, staff from the provincial Office of the Fire Commissioner, a civilian search-and-rescue unit and volunteers scour dense woods on the ground and from above at Belair Provincial Forest for Nadia Monaco, who had vanished on Wednesday.
The 66-year-old went missing about 9:30 a.m. while on an outing with a group to pick mushrooms.
"We're focusing on the area around the point last seen, and expanding out from there," Dave Schafer, an operations manager with the fire commissioner's office, said at a command post officials had set up just north of Provincial Road 304.
Monaco had become separated from her friends in the woods, who called RCMP after they were unable to find her during a 2 1/2 -hour search on their own.
Because she needs insulin for her diabetes, officials and volunteers know they're fighting not only rainy and chilly conditions, but time as well.
"We like to hope for the best, so that's how we're working. And we're going to keep searching until we come to some favourable conclusion," RCMP spokesman Const. Miles Hiebert said at the search area.
"Everyone, keep your thoughts with the family -- and we'll hope for the best for them."
Several members of Monaco's family were near the command post, though RCMP said they didn't want to speak to media.
A former brother-in-law of the missing woman said, however, the disappearance has stunned her relatives and friends.
"My whole family is in shock. We're just hoping and praying they find her alive and well," Bart Monaco said.
Originally from Poland, Nadia Monaco has two grown children -- a son in Winnipeg and a daughter in Detroit -- and two grandchildren.
The search focused on an area of two square kilometres. In addition to several all-terrain vehicles with tires or tracks, horses were used, as well as a contracted helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging camera.
Meanwhile, three dogs -- two with the RCMP and one with the fire commissioner's staff-- tried to trace Monaco's scent.
"If you can find a clue, at least it points you in the right direction," Schafer said.
"That's what we're looking for -- that first clue to really focus our efforts on one specific area."
Hiebert said there's no evidence of foul play.
ross.romaniuk@sunmedia.ca
- With files from Chris Kitching
