A Lil’wat man and his son, who were found dead in late fall 2020 after going missing on a mushroom-picking trip, likely died of exposure to the cold, concluded a B.C. coroner.
Peter Andrew Oleski, 48, and his 21-year-old son River, were last seen on Oct. 22, 2020, when they left to go mushroom picking in Mount Currie. Family reported them missing the following morning after they hadn’t returned.
Local RCMP, Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police and Pemberton Search and Rescue joined volunteer crews in their search, and on Oct. 29, tracked down the father-and-son’s pickup truck near the end of the McKenzie Forest Service Road. The same day, the two were discovered deceased in a densely wooded area approximately 500 metres from the Jack the Ripper mountain bike trail.
Oleski, who was found lying on his back, was wearing a hoodie, dark pants and running shoes at the time, all of which were “extremely wet,” coroner Lucy Pridgeon wrote in her report.
A post-mortem examination found evidence consistent with hypothermia, “along with some non-contributory natural disease processes,” Pridgeon noted, before adding that abrasions found on his legs were determined not to have contributed to his death.
Oleski and his son became lost, likely in an early snowstorm, the report continued, and although Oleski had experience in the outdoors, he was “not prepared for an unsheltered overnight stay in the mountains, particularly in the unseasonably cold and snowy weather.”
Although it is believed that Oleski died soon after he went missing, the day his body was discovered was listed as his date of death due to a lack of corroborative evidence to specifically support an earlier day.
While the Jan. 21 coroner’s report only detailed the cause of death for Oleski, Pridgeon concluded that River also succumbed to the cold.
Oleski’s death was ruled as accidental, and therefore no follow-up recommendations were made.
News of the father-and-son’s tragic deaths rocked Mount Currie and Pemberton. Dozens of community volunteers lent a hand in searching for the pair in those first few uncertain days.
“The determination of the Lil’wat community and the search and rescue teams was inspiring to all those who participated in the search,” said RCMP Sgt. Sascha Banks in a statement at the time. “Although this is not the ending we had all hoped for, I am thankful they were located, as this is not always the case with those that go missing in our backcountry.”
