Three boaters left to go fishing on Lake Koocanusa from Englishman Creek Campsite, the party camping next to them who did not know the subjects saw them leave and offered to watch over two dogs they had left at the campsite.  When the subjects did not return by 23:30 the party watching over the dogs reported this to RCMP as they thought it strange as they had left their dogs behind.

The RCMP called Fernie SAR who due to the darkness were only able to send a vehicle to Dorr Road to drive parallel to the lake to listen for distress calls, whilst doing this the subjects returned to their campsite at 02:20 having earlier met up with friends and decided to spend time with them before returning to their campsite.