An Attawapiskat man has been missing since July, and is presumed dead.
Michael Linklater, 44, was a heavy drinker, according to Peter Wynne, Linklater’s cousin. Wynne said that went out with his family to the bush to help get “dried out.” While in the bush, he went for a walk and never returned.
Wynne says that it’s not likely he’s lost, but that he probably just doesn’t want to come back home for whatever reason. “Even a white man wouldn’t get lost in those woods, there is a river running east-west, and another one that goes north-south right near the train tracks. With the train running twice a day, there’s no way someone could get lost, I knew something was wrong,” said Wynne.
“In the last couple of months, we’ve found a fire that was probably used to warm him up, and we’ve also found tracks where we could tell he was missing a shoe.”
Jerry Nakogee, a police officer who coordinated the search for Linklater, said that at this point the search has been called off until they receive new evidence that he’s still alive.
Family members are still searching for him, but they fear that after five months, he’s not coming back.
