The news dreaded by family and friends of Kenneth Bjornstad came Thursday, after hundreds of man hours spent searching.
The missing 50-year-old Bonnyville man was found dead in a field about three miles north of town almost a full month after he disappeared into the night in a confused state from a local gas station on March 31. He was found by a local farmer, RCMP said.
Bjornstad's death is not being treated as suspicious by RCMP, who said he is believed to have died from exposure.
While the sombre news that Bjornstad wouldn't be coming home alive hit relatives, friends and former co-workers hard, they were taking some solace in the certainty, and it their shared memories.
“He was definitely a great guy and he touched a lot more people than we realized,” said friend Charlene Hollett, who has experienced comfort from messages left on a Facebook page honouring the former oilpatch worker.
“I don't think Ken himself realized how much he touched people,” Hollett said.
Comments remembering Bjornstad were still piling up on Facebook on Monday afternoon.
RCMP said Bjornstad was reported to be in a very confused state when he left his vehicle at the Highway 28 Esso station across from Ducharme Motors and simply vanished around 9 p.m. on March 31. Friends came to realize he was missing a few days later, and spent much of Easter weekend looking for him after reporting his status to RCMP. Formal searches directed by Mounties started on April 8, and a vicious spring snowstorm arrived that same night, greatly reducing the chance Bjornstad would be found.
Search and rescue groups from Cold Lake, Bonnyville and St. Paul continued to look for Bjornstad until Mounties, with nothing solid to go on, eventually called off the formal search.
Ground searchers were helped by a helicopter in the air, but even then, Bjornstad could not be located.
Reached Monday, Gale Vigfusson, Bjornstad's sister from Vancouver Island, was sad but in some ways relieved.
“I'm just relieved the he's finally found and the waiting's done and we can begin to grieve. It's just very, very sad,” she said.
Family members descended on Bonnyville to thank searchers and friends in mid-April, aware the odds of their brother being found alive had declined significantly. They were grateful for the support they received here at a very trying time.
“We did meet a lot of helpful people up in Bonnyville,” Vigfusson said.
“They were just amazing — the support there's been through all of this.”
Hollett said there will be a celebration of Bjornstad's life at a future date.
