VANCOUVER -- May 28 update: The man's body has been found.
The sister of a Burnaby man who walked away from hospital Sunday and has been the subject of an intense search says he had been in a car crash Friday night.
New Westminster police are renewing calls for the public's help in locating Gavin Deloes, 42, after some of his belongings were found on Wednesday. He was seen leaving Royal Columbian Hospital at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday and later spotted by a witness about 45 minutes later near Holmes and Garfield streets, and then again between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Cariboo Road Christian Fellowship Church.
"He doesn’t go a day without talking to my parents — it’s not like him, nothing about this situation is like my brother," said Crystal Jarvis. "We’re a super close family and this isn’t anything like his regular character."
On Wednesday, a member of the public found some of Deloes' belongings around 8:30 p.m. in a green space behind the Salvation Army Cariboo Hill Temple in Burnaby. Among the items located were slippers, socks, a hospital gown, an iPod and mouthwash.
"New Westminster Police Department officers, with a police service dog, extensively searched the area until calling off the search due to darkness and terrain in the area making it unsafe to continue," police said in a news release.
Coquitlam Search and Rescue, New Westminster police, as well as Deloes' family members are continuing to look for him in the Cariboo Hill area. Wednesday afternoon, a team from Central Fraser Valley Search and Rescue arrived and CTV News saw Mounties operating a drone in the area.
"Police and search and rescue is doing everything they can but what has really touched our hearts is the friends and family that’ve really shown up, there’s so much love and everyone is so hopeful to find my brother,” said Jarvis. "I can’t thank people enough."
Now that the search is focussed around Deloes' belongings at the site in Burnaby, RCMP have taken over jurisdiction from New Westminster Police.
"This area is a large green space that include a trail network that runs between the residential area of Cariboo Heights to the south, Highway 1 to the west, and Cariboo Temple to the north," police said.
Deloes is described as 5'11" tall with a slim build and short black hair. Police say he may only be wearing black boxer shorts.
If anyone sees Deloes, they're asked to call 911 immediately.
