(Cranbrook RCMP)

By The Canadian Press

UPDATE: Rescue Area Expanded

Search for missing five-year-old boy in southern Alberta enters third day

Sep 23, 2025 | 4:27 PM

The search for a five-year-old boy is entering its third day as responders in southwestern Alberta expand their rescue area.

Adam Kennedy with Alberta Search and Rescue says it’s being adjusted because Darius Macdougall may have wandered away from their initial search area.

Macdougall went missing Sunday after he didn’t return from a walk with six family members to their campsite near Island Lake Campground, south of Crowsnest Pass.

RCMP say 82 searchers and divers from B.C. and Alberta have scoured the area with drones, dogs and ATVs for the last two nights, but haven’t found the Lethbridge boy.

They have said foul play isn’t suspected, but are keeping the investigation broad and looking at every possible angle.

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Police say local groups are helping out with supplies.

But Kennedy says civilians are being asked to leave the search itself to professionals, noting the terrain of the area can be treacherous.

“There’s the potential that if (civilian searchers) become injured, then we have to reroute some of our resources on the ground,” Kennedy told a virtual news conference Tuesday.

“It’s really a mixed level of terrain in this area, and it’s everything from flat ground to high angle cliffs and everything in between.”

RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney said the family is distraught but has been helping in the search.

Darius is described as four feet tall with short brown hair, and he was last seen wearing a blue-grey hoodie and sweatpants.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2025.

By Aaron Sousa in Edmonton and Matthew Scace in Calgary

(The Canadian Press)