Man who died with wife and son in Alberta lake wasn't a risk-taker, says friend

An Edmonton man who died with his wife and eight-year-old son after their utility terrain vehicle went into a lake wasn't the kind of person to put his family at risk, says a friend.

“I would never, ever think he was the type of person to purposely put himself or his wife and kid in any kind of danger,” Michael Occhionero said.

“To me, that's a freak accident.”

Kelly Pelsma, 39, his wife, Laura Pelsma, 37, and their son, Dylan, were reported missing Christmas Day. They hadn't been heard from since Dec. 23 and were last seen in Alberta Beach, northwest of Edmonton on Lac Ste. Anne, on a side-by-side vehicle.

On Tuesday, RCMP said an underwater recovery team found the family and warned about the dangers of thin ice. Their bodies were found in the water along with the vehicle in an area near the Alexis Bridge.

Occhionero, who lives in Idaho, said he and a group of friends met Kelly Pelsma at UTV Invasion, a gathering of side-by-side off-road enthusiasts, in 2018 in Idaho.

Pelsma's side-by-side had broken down and Occhionero said they helped him put a new on the vehicle.

“We had a good time with him, rode around, talked a lot, drank, had fires, and watched drag racing and stuff.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Occhionero said he and Pelsma talked on the phone a few times a month.

He and Pelsma reunited at this year's event in St. Anthony, Idaho. Pelsma also brought his wife and their son.

“It was just me and the three of them,” said Occhionero. “We had a great time.”

He said Pelsma was like a giant teddy bear who also liked adventure.

“He liked to live life on the edge, but I think all of us motorheads do to some degree,” Occhionero said.

“He was very cautious, like a calculated-risk type of guy.”

Photos of Pelsma and his family at the UTV event were posted on his Facebook page in September. Laura Pelsma also posted smiling pictures of their wedding day from the spring. The couple and their son posed near an oil derrick.

Kelly Pelsma was a cast member in “Licence to Drill,” a reality TV series that followed rig hands drilling oil in Alberta, B.C. and the Northwest Territories. The show aired on Discovery Channel Canada from 2010 to 2014.

A synopsis of the show says Pelsma worked on a rig in central Alberta. During the show's last season, Pelsma and the cast travelled to work at an oil site in Louisiana.

Skye Nipshank of Calgary, a cast member who worked at a different site, said he was sorry to hear about the deaths.

He said he knew Pelsma through Bonanza Drilling, the company Pelsma had worked for.

“Kelly was a person who lived life to the fullest and all the people who had the chance to work with him knew he liked to work hard and play harder,” Nipshank said in an online message.

Joe Blakeman, reeve of Lac Ste. Anne County, said the Pelsma family was relatively new to the lake and might have not been familiar with the area.

They bought property there in August, he said.

A current runs below the bridge where their bodies were found, Blakeman said, and the water near it doesn't completely freeze over.

“It's always open water and it has been like that my whole life, 57 years,” he said. “It hasn't changed.

“The lakes, they're never 100 per cent safe, and you got to know where you're going and know what you're up against.”

He said there's a sign on the bridge warning people of the current and thin ice, but the sign hasn't been maintained in a while.

“I had a call from a couple summer villages yesterday and they're wondering if we should do something (about the sign),” he said.

“This is definitely a tragedy. All the years I've been here, there have been trucks that have gone through the ice there, there have been snowmobiles.

“We've just never lost a life.”

Occhionero said he had planned to visit the Pelsmas this winter to go snowmobiling.

He said others in the UTV community in Idaho have also reached out to to him about the tragedy.

“They were a great couple and great people who wanted to be friends with everybody.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2023.