Friends, family of man presumed drowned in Niagara whirlpool on campaign to get police to resume search
CBC
A man is presumed dead after falling into the Niagara River whirlpool last weekend and regional police have suspended their formal search — although friends and family are working to encourage them to keep looking for the 25-year-old.
Two people who say they're friends identified the missing man as Shubham Manchanda. Until recently, he was an international student from India who began attending Durham College in Oshawa, Ont., three years ago.
They say Manchanda was living in Thorold and had been working in St. Catharines at an IT and consulting company over the last six months.
He loved nature and was out for a hike on the afternoon of June 15 when he and his friends went down to the riverbank, his friends told CBC.
The two weren't with Manchanda last Saturday. But they said they've spoken to people who were and were told Manchanda, who couldn't swim, slipped and fell from a rock into the Niagara River and was swept away by the current.
CBC Hamilton also spoke with a person who was hiking in the area that day, Jason Herterich, who said he heard shouting and saw a person drifting downstream.
Niagara regional police, Niagara Falls Fire and the Canadian Coast Guard searched but to no avail, police say.
Friends, family and supporters have been using social media to raise awareness and encourage police to continue to look for him.
Manish Arora, who lives in Faridabad, India, said he has been friends with Manchanda since they were 10 years old. Speaking with CBC Hamilton by phone, he said the two grew up in the same neighbourhood and were close, like family.
"He would [have done] very, very big things in his life," Arora said.
Arora said family and friends in India are in touch with one another and have communicated with police, encouraging them to continue searching.
They're "still traumatized," Arora said, and feeling helpless given they're so far away.
"We recognize the tragic loss for this family," Niagara police spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin said in an email Wednesday.
She said officers conducted "extensive and exhaustive searches from air, land and water," and while a formal search has been suspended, the marine unit continues to keep an eye out while on patrol.
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