Family of missing southern Alberta man conducts search in Pemberton backcountry

Right off the bat, the start of the journey did not go as planned, as the family arrived a full day later than they had wanted to.

“We had planned for a 14-hour trip up there and it ended up being, for us…about 32 hours, I believe,” Fogen told LNN.

“One of my cousins actually got stopped due to an accident on the road. They were a little bit behind us, and their journey was about 40 hours.”

The family was assisted by 4LOW BC, who provided transport for the family through the rugged terrain to the site where Iwaasa’s truck was located. Fogen said that trek was very shaky.

“They [ATVs] ended up needing to, like, I guess air out their tires once they got to a certain area where they were going to start rock climbing a little bit more to get to the terrain,” she told LNN.

“Even a specialized vehicle has to take in certain precautions…to help the ride go a little easier.”

A short video displaying the ruggedness of the terrain has been posted to the ‘Find Marshal Iwaasa’ Facebook page by Fogen. That can be viewed here.

Fogen said the biggest take-away from the trip for her was solidifying her belief that her brother did not willingly drive to the site. She added he may not have even been to the site at all.

“The ride up was really difficult. There’s lots of points where I thought, are we still on the road, is this the end of the road, or the end of the trail…because there’s not really a road and some pretty big dips and bumps and going over a river-y type area,” she remarked.

The search party preparing to start their journey (Photo provided by Paige Fogen)

“Marshal was not familiar with that area, had never been there and I cannot see him willingly taking his truck up there and just destroying it, essentially, to get up there.”

She added that the family also noticed pieces of Iwaasa’s truck were missing.

“We’re still trying to figure that out with the police and stuff, but it further leads me to believe Marshal wasn’t up there by his own choice, or maybe even up there ever.”

After visiting the site where the truck was found, Fogen said she spoke with the Pemberton RCMP. Although the family was not able to see the physical items found with the truck, Fogen said they were shown some photos on file with the RCMP.

“We were requesting to see all [of] the items that they had in their evidence because I’ve never been able to see everything to identify what isn’t Marshal’s that’s up there [at the truck site],” she said.

“From what I have seen, we’ve identified multiple things that are not his.”

A post from Fogen on the public Facebook page ‘Find Marshal Iwaasa’ (Facebook image)

Fogen said the family has met with their private investigation (PI) team, to discuss their findings. The PI team completed a search of the area a few days before her family searched the site.

Although the journey was long, Fogen did say their trip yielded some results.

“After seeing it [the truck site], and kind of putting together everything I know that we’ve discovered so far, I really am pushing this to be looked at as a homicide or as a criminal investigation,” she said.

Late last month, the Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) led an ‘exhaustive search’ of the area in Pemberton. However, an update has not yet been provided by LPS.

by Justin Goulet

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Family of missing southern Alberta man conducts search in Pemberton backcountry

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