‘I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what happened’: Missing Ohio filmmaker’s body found near waterfall in B.C. wilderness

Armina Ligaya | Nov 18, 2012 8:31 PM ET | Last Updated: Nov 18, 2012 8:34 PM ET

RCMP / The Canadian Press Files Warren Andrew Sill has been found dead in northern B.C.

 

The mystery of the Ohio filmmaker who went missing in the B.C. wilderness this summer was finally solved this weekend when his body was discovered in a pool of water by a waterfall, but officials may never know how he reached his untimely death.

Warren Andrew Sill, who set out into Seven Sisters Provincial Park to find and photograph the elusive B.C. spirit bear, was found dead on Saturday in the Gull Creek area, RCMP said Sunday.
At this stage, police believe Mr. Sill, 26, drowned and there was no foul play, but how he ended up in the water is still unclear, RCMP spokeswoman Constable Lesley Smith.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what happened…. We’re probably leaning more towards the fact that he probably lost his footing and fell, because he was still wearing his hiking boots when we did locate him,” she said.

In July, Mr. Sill left his home in North Ridgeville, Ohio, on the outskirts of Cleveland, in a SUV loaded with camping gear and camera equipment. His goal was to track down the spirit bear, or Kermode bear, which is a rare subspecies of black bear with an all-white coat found primarily on the B.C. coast.

He was a Kent State University graduate who worked for an insurance company.

“He’s just a really curious, inquisitive person — especially when it comes to nature,” said his sister, Maureen Sill, in July.

Mr. Sill didn’t have a strict itinerary, but he planned to incorporate his travels into a documentary protesting the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, said Joel Fowler, a musician who hosted Mr. Sill over the Canada Day weekend and who spoke to the Post in July.

After trekking into the park, Mr. Sill had reportedly planned to meet up with a host in nearby Terrace, B.C.

Robin Rowland / The Canadian Press     Frank MacDonald, centre, a search manager with the Bulkley Valley Search and Rescue, briefs his team on the search for missing Ohio film maker Warren Andrew Sill in Gull Creek, B.C., on July 15, 2012. 

 

On July 5, Mr. Sill was seen in Prince George. But five days later, his abandoned Pontiac — with his tent and sleeping bag still inside — was discovered in an old rock pit on the Whiskey Creek Trail, a multi-day 7.2 kilometre hike that snakes through “pleasant mature” forest before it comes to a tricky water crossing.

During the summer, the surrounding park is well-known for its heavy bear presence.

Five day hikes in the area are commonplace, but when local RCMP learned Mr. Sill was not an avid outdoorsman, they called in a search and rescue team.

Helicopters, volunteers, sniffer dogs scoured the heart of bear country in mid-July, but found nothing.
On Saturday, local RCMP, who have continued to search the area and used it to conduct training exercises, found a shirt near a waterfall, said Const. Smith.

“It was a shirt that was intact enough that we knew that it belonged to Warren, due to a logo that was on that shirt from Ohio,” she said.

Because water levels in the Gull Creek area had receded from the high levels in the summer months, the terrain had become more accessible.

A local search and rescue team conducted an intense search, including a dive, and discovered Mr. Sill’s body underwater, Const. Smith said.

“The mystery would be how he came to be in the water,” she said. “Did he lose his footing [upstream] and [fall] into the waterfall? Or did he lose his footing down below?”

It will be difficult to determine whether an animal also played a role, she said, due to the state of the Mr. Sill’s body after being underwater for months.

His body was sent to Vancouver for dental records analysis — which confirmed his identity — and an autopsy, the results of which are not yet complete, said Const. Smith.

The RCMP sends their condolences to the Sill family, and their friends.

“It’s very bittersweet,” said Const. Smith. “You know it was a mystery at one time, but now they have closure and they can bring him home to rest. So, it’s very sad, but again, a closure for his family and his friends.”