It was three years ago that the exhaustive search for Jordan Naterer, who went missing in Manning Park, came to a tragic end.
Now there is a book, written by Jordan’s father Greg, that recounts the extraordinary lengths his family pursued over 10 months and recognizes the contribution of volunteers, especially Mike Allison, an Indigenous man who searched and tracked for Jordan on his own.
Called By Mother Earth: A Father’s Search for His Son, is available on Amazon.
Greg is presently the Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and a professor of mechanical engineering at Memorial University.
“We miss Jordan tremendously and wish we could hold him again to tell him how much he is loved and missed,” Greg told The Spotlight in a 2021 interview.
Then-Princeton RCMP Sgt. Rob Hughes said Jordan’s story, the search and the investigation, will always stay with him.
“It was intense and it was emotional.”
Unabashedly, he admitted being moved to tears several times while meeting with Jordan’s parents.
Jordan, who lived in Vancouver, was 25 when he set out on the Thanksgiving weekend in 2020 for a solitary hike and overnight camping trip at Manning Park.
He was reported missing three days later, after he failed to show up for a holiday dinner with friends.
Vancouver Police Department, Princeton RCMP and Princeton Ground Search and Rescue lead the search for the man. When that was called off due to weather and a lack of results, his family took over.
Greg and his wife Josie, who travelled from their family’s home in Newfoundland, organized an intense effort to find Jordan.
They started a Go Fund Me campaign that raised more than $140,000. They used personal resources as well, employing helicopters, avalanche technicians, trackers, a first-aider, a former military officer and private search and rescue specialists.
They flew drones above the areas Jordan might have gone towards, and volunteers reviewed thousands of hours of video.
On Sunday, July 4, 2021, a searcher located Jordan’s tent and backpack, near the summit of Frosty Mountain. This renewed official search efforts, and his personal property and remains were discovered July 7, near a creek bed, about three kilometres away from the campsite.
It was Josie who wrote Jordan’s first obituary on that day, to a Facebook group of the family’s supporters and friends.
“Jordan’s final path was eventually determined,” it read. “After accidentally losing the hiking trail in unexpected snow conditions at Frosty Mountain…Jordan Naterer fought a courageous battle to escape out of treacherous terrain. His remarkable distance travelled through drainages under the worst imaginable blizzard conditions was a testament to his super-human effort to survive.”
Jordan was undergraduate electrical engineer from Memorial University, and had just just completed his Masters at the University of B.C.
He was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada scholar who loved music, poetry and cooking.
He is also survived by two sisters, Julia and Veronica.
“Jordan has an active presence in our lives every day,” said Greg.
“We will always remain a family of five, including Jordan.”
