Upset with what’s been done so far, friends fund new search effort.

Jay Butterworth and Norm Doucette have heard a lot of rumours since their friend and business partner Rene Nolette went missing, bringing them to a point where they’re uncertain of what to believe.

Determined to get at the truth, Butterworth and Doucette have posted a $100,000 reward for the recovery of Nolette, who they last saw on Aug. 13.

“The two guys that know the most about this is me and Jay,” says Doucette. “I’ve known Rene since he was born, and Jay’s known him for 14 years. I know there’s rumours around town of every kind.”

Recalling the night of Nolette’s disappearance, Doucette says that after sharing drinks at Moose Mulligan’s in Sicamous, he, Butterworth, Nolette and an acquaintance, Mark Cote, left the bar at approximately 1:30 a.m. and, by Doucette’s pontoon boat, arrived at Butterworth’s cabin on Shuswap Lake just before 2 a.m. Nolette had planned to stay the night at the cabin, says Doucette, but Cote had to work the next day and Nolette, an experienced boater, agreed to take Cote back. So at around 3 a.m., according to Doucette, the two men set off on calm water under bright moonlight on what should have been about a 20-minute boat trip. It was the last Doucette and Butterworth would see of their friend.

More than eight hours after his and Nolette’s departure, at 11:30 a.m. Mark showed up alone back in Sicamous with Doucette’s boat. Butterworth and Doucette say they were initially told by Cote that Nolette had stopped the boat near Marble Point, got off to go to the bathroom and never came back. After an unsuccessful search of the area, the two men eventually learned from Cote that Nolette had stopped off near Annis Bay at a lighthouse by the railway tunnel.

“We parked the boat and tied it up and then Norm and I did a more thorough search because now Mark has confirmed this is where he dropped him off, so we checked out houses and cabins,” said Butterworth. But their efforts were fruitless.

At around 4:30 p.m. Nolette’s family contacted the RCMP. Shuswap Search and Rescue, with assistance from Vernon Search and Rescue members, commenced a ground search for Nolettee sometime after 7 p.m. The search lasted until 3 a.m. and began again at around 9:30 a.m. At some point during all this, says Doucette, the focus of the search changed after the police learned from Cote that Nolette may have fallen overboard. This was made plausible when on Aug. 15 at around 2 p.m., searchers found one of Nolette’s sandals floating in the water. About an hour later and two miles away the second sandal was found. Butterworth, who owns exactly the same sport-type sandals as Nolette’s, says he is puzzled they were still done up when found.

“You can’t take them off without undoing them,” said Butterworth.

With the initial search efforts coming up empty, Doucette and Butterworth say they were asked by police if there was anything more they could do, and the two men asked if a polygraph could be taken of Cote. Police confirm, however, that this was not done, and Cote has since left the Sicamous area.

“We’re definitely frustrated,” said Doucette, who with Butterworth is unhappy with the effort to date made by police to uncover Nolette, adding that he and Butterworth have, for the past month, been conducting an ongoing search at their own expense.

“I wish the RCMP would do what we pay them to do,” said Butterworth. “Why do we have to do their job for them?”

As a Shuswap Search and Rescue search manager, Jan Crerar was one of the many volunteers involved in the initial search with RCMP for Nolette. While she understands the frustration Nolette’s friends and family feel, she says the RCMP and Search and Rescue did all the could with the information they had.

“It’s been devastating for my volunteers, my searchers, because we all have day jobs and this is a volunteer thing that we do because we desperately want to help… and not being able to come up with something for the family, it’s very heartbreaking for us,” said Crerar. “We really do take a second look at what the RCMP do and say, ‘officers, what about this or this,’ and in this case, I am satisfied the RCMP did everything they possibly could do within the limits of their resources.”

Police continue to investigate Nolette’s disappearance. Cst. Pat Pyper of the Sicamous RCMP says between the police and search and rescue about 17 hours were spent on the ground and on the water searching for Nolette. An air search was also conducted. Pyper says what’s made the search difficult are the inconsistencies in the information they’ve received.

“And that’s not only of the witness who was on the boat, but of other people who gave statements… and our people have looked at the statements and they’ve determined that the inconsistencies could be put up to the alcohol and darkness and a bunch of other things.”

Pyper says Cote is in the country and is being co-operative. And while he says he believes, based on the information currently known to police, that Nolette drowned, Pyper is not ruling anything out.

For 25 days after the initial search, Vernon Search and Rescue member Darren Muntak, under the employment of Doucette and Butterworth, conducted an underwater search for Nolette. Using a combination of side-scan sonar, GPS mapping and a submersible remote camera, Muntak said his search spanned between 20 to 30 square miles of lake bed.

“The area we’ve searched, I can pretty much say there’s a 90 to 95 per cent probability he’s not in that area,” said Muntak.

This has led Butterworth and Doucette to the opinion – contrary to the RCMP’s belief – that Nolette did not drown. But for now all the men have are theories, hearsay and rumours to go on.

“At this point… knowing what we do, of course our emotions are going to run high on what did happen, where did it happen, why did it happen. Or was it simply just an accident?” said Butterworth.