Annual North Saskatchewan River sweep for missing persons to take place Wednesday

Police will be looking for human remains in the North Saskatchewan River valley on Wednesday.

The search by police, firefighters, city park rangers, and local search-and-rescue organizations is conducted annually in the fall when river levels are at their lowest.

"We start from pretty much Parkland County near Devon and we go almost all the way to Fort Saskatchewan," explained Insp. Brent Dahlseide of the major crimes unit Wednesday morning. 

The distance covered will be about 75 kilometres.

Edmonton Police Service has led the search for about 10 years. 

The North Saskatchewan River flows through a number of communities, and human remains are recovered from it or its shores each year.

The sweep is considered an unfortunate but necessary part of investigative work.

"Basically the whole search itself is to locate any known or unknown remains that may be in the river valley here. So this is missing persons that we've got reported to us, as well as any that may be unreported," Dahlseide said. 

"Anything that we find today, obviously we're going to expand the investigation and continue to dig into that."

During the sweep, the river and its banks are assigned to searchers in a grid pattern. EPS and Edmonton Fire Rescue Service will be operating boats equipped with underwater cameras and sonar. As well, EPS will be using drones and its police service dog, Jolly, who is specially trained to find human remains, including those in water.