Camping senior missing since gunshots heard

Missing camper Raymond Salmen hasn't been seen since Mounties investigated a report of shots fired near his campground at Harrison Lake. June 12, 2013. (CTV)

The search for a Vancouver senior whose abandoned campsite was found after gunshots rang out near Harrison Lake last weekend is growing more desperate.

Raymond Salmen’s camp was discovered by Mounties responding to a call of shots fired at a remote area roughly 50 kilometres up the West Harrison Forestry Service Road Sunday night.

Officers found Salmen’s two beloved dogs in his camper, but there was no sign of the 65-year-old.

Search crews have been scouring the area since Monday to no avail, and the avid camper’s wife is growing anxious to hear good news.

“It’s all these mysteries. My mind keeps thinking what could have possibly happened that he would go without the dogs,” his wife Daniela Salmen told CTV News.

“What would he be doing that he doesn’t have the dogs with him? If he’s going for a hike, he would take the dogs.”

Salmen ventured out with his truck and camper on May 28, and wasn’t expected to return home for a few weeks. There’s no cell coverage in the area where he set up camp, located about 120 kilometres east of Vancouver.

His wife said she wasn’t too worried about the initial news of his disappearance because he’s a skilled outdoorsman who carries emergency equipment and can hold his own for a few days in the wilderness.

“He’s camped all his life, always. He’s more at home in the bush,” she said. “Now the weather’s changed, it’s cold, it’s raining. And it’s kind of scary now. It’s hard to be positive now.”

Mounties say there is no evidence that Salmen’s disappearance is connected to the shots fired, but due to his age they’re still in a hurry to find him.

“Unfortunately it’s quite frequent that people take their firearms up there for fire practice,” said Cpl. Len Vannieu. “One of that avenues we’re following [is] that he is out on a hiking trail somewhere maybe in need of help and unable to communicate with us.”

Anyone who has seen Salmen or has information about his whereabouts is asked to call Agassiz RCMP at 604-796-2211 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Michele Brunoro