VANCOUVER – The body of a Southwestern Ontario woman missing in British Columbia since late last month has been found, police and loved ones say.
Jacqueline McDermott, a 22-year-old Kitchener native, was found dead over the weekend. Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they “do not believe that criminality was involved in the woman’s sudden death.”
The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating.
McDermott had been missing since Sept. 30. According to an online fundraising page set up by loved ones, McDermott had left a yoga retreat and her vehicle was found broken down on Highway 97 C between the B.C. communities of Merritt, about 270 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, and Logan Lake.
“All of Jaqui’s belongings were left with her van. Local community members recall seeing Jaqui around her vehicle,” the page stated. The Waterloo Region Record interviewed her father, who said the young woman travelled to B.C. to tree plant and work on a farm.
RCMP planes and police dogs were called in to help search and rescue teams. The fundraising page was set up to help cover the cost of her parents flying to B.C. to co-ordinate their own search efforts and raised nearly $50,000.
McDermott had been travelling in Canada in her van since the spring.
“She was stubborn and funny and creative and passionate and full of joy,” her mother, Nathalie, wrote in an online tribute to her daughter. “She was a beacon that shined out to the world and pulled people close. She believed in the goodness and kindness of humans above everything else. She was light.”
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