The search for a missing 14-year-old Nelson girl came to an end on Thursday morning after she was located in Enderby.
According to Trail RCMP, Morgan Durocher was found unharmed and with her boyfriend.
The announcement came on after police confirmed they found some “personal items” near the stairwell behind the Cominco Arena belonging to Durocher, and had a canine unit out in the area Tuesday afternoon to follow the lead.
On Wednesday police called in 10 members of the South Columbia Search and Rescue and two Rossland Search and Rescue members to comb the hillside between the city’s arena and Teck Trail Operations.
Although police thought it unlikely the girl would be found in the area — 10 days after she was reported missing before “voluntarily” leaving Trail July 30 — they had to take the necessary precautions and conduct a thorough search.
There was reason to believe the girl was still within the Trail and Nelson vicinity, said Trail RCMP Sgt. Rob Hawton.
“We have no reason to believe she has come into any foul play at this point,” he said while on the search scene earlier this week.
After monitoring social media sites, Hawton suggested that Durocher may have been headed to Shambhala.
He said undercover and uniformed police officers were planning to attend the event to looking for her.
Prior to locating the teen, Regional RCMP Staff Sgt. Dan Seibel said the investigation would continue as a missing person case.
“But this is a unique investigation because this girl has run away previously,” he said. “There are no suspicious or extenuating circumstances that we are aware of.”
Search and rescue members and the South Columbia’s canine unit were out Wednesday morning, dipping into the water with the swift water rescue team to cover the shoreline of the Columbia River from the Victoria Street Bridge to the US border.
“This makes us certain that she is not here,” said South Columbia president Ron Medland Wednesday morning.
“This is part of our due diligence in the matter.”
The members used a closed grid search of the hill as part of their search in the area near where the evidence was found.
Durocher’s family notified police that she walked off from her foster home in Trail on July 30 and hasn’t been seen since.
Hawton said this has happened before with Durocher, but whenever a youth is involved they “have to take things seriously.”
RCMP said Wednesday there was reason to believe that she was headed to Nelson to meet up with her boyfriend.
- with files from Timothy Schafer, Trail Daily Times