Jeffery Phan and Michelle Lesaca, both 24, are seen with their three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son in this undated handout photo. Search and rescue teams in northwestern British Columbia say a family of four from Oregon has been found safe in a remote and rugged area just 250 kilometres south of the Yukon border
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, RCMP
June 21, 2018 - 9:39 AM
DEASE LAKE, B.C. - Search and rescue teams in northwestern British Columbia say a family of four from Oregon has been found safe in a remote and rugged area just 250 kilometres south of the Yukon border.
Dave Jephson with Terrace Search and Rescue says the couple, Jeffery Phan and Michelle Lesaca, both 24-years-old, and their two- and three-year-old children were found Wednesday.
A search had been launched two days earlier after the family's 2018 black Toyota Yaris was spotted on a highway in the extreme northwestern corner of the province, with a note saying it was out of gas.
RCMP said the car was thought to have been abandoned June 10, just a day after the family crossed into Canada near the southeastern B.C. community of Fernie.
Search planes spotted a family group on the west side of Kinaskan Lake Wednesday and Jephson says rescuers had reached them within hours and all four appeared to be in good condition.
He says there are many unanswered questions about how the family travelled so deeply into the backcountry on foot.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018