1 month later police, volunteers vow to keep searching for body of Kaden Young

Each evening, Cam Young posts to Facebook to thank the people who helped search for his son that day.

"See you at 9 a.m.," he writes of the next day's search.

Each day, Young searches the water and banks of the Grand River for his son, Kaden. Kaden, 3, went missing in rising flood waters in the river near Grand Valley just before 1 a.m. on February 21. The van he and his mother were in went into the river. As Kaden's mother, Michelle Hason, tried to pull him from the van to safety, Kaden was swept out of her arms by the rushing water.

A neighbour spotted the van floating down the river, the headlights on, and called 911.

Since then, a T-shirt, a booster seat, a wallet have been found but there has been no sign of the boy.

Kaden's father is sometimes joined by about a dozen volunteers during the week. On weekends, sometimes more than a hundred show up.

Richard Croft has organized a co-ordinated search effort that involves chipping at ice blocks that were pushed out of the river during the flooding, using a chainsaw to check under downed trees and raking the ground for any sign of Kaden.

It's exhausting work, physically and mentally.

In an interview earlier this month, Croft said as a father himself and a friend of the family, he knew he had to help organize line searches for any sign of Kaden.

"I'm just one to help and this is one of these situations where they really need help," he said. "[Kaden's] just an amazing little boy. We've got to bring him home."

Still a lot of ice on reservoir

The volunteer searchers are still facing winter conditions as they head out along the river.

Belwood Lake is very much ice-covered, said Cam Linwood, communications co-ordinator for the Grand River Conservation Authority.

While water levels are lower than they typically are in the Grand River near Grand Valley, Linwood said the water is still quite cold.

"It's really not much more than one or two degrees, and we all know that can lead to tragedy pretty quickly," he said.

Due to cold temperatures, Linwood said in the past few weeks, they are still seeing ice form on the river upstream overnight.

And onBelwood Lake, a reservoir, "there is still quite a significant amount of ice" he said.

"In some areas, [it's] fractured ice. So even though it's a solid ice sheet, it's very much not smooth and level," he said.

Searchers who want to check the reservoir will have to wait until the ice is off the water, which will likely takeseveral more weeks.

Divers need river conditions to improve

Police are also searching daily for Kaden, Dufferin OPP Const. Paul Nancekivell said.

They are waiting for conditions on the river to improve before the OPP dive team can get back in the water.

"We're kind of right now still at the mercy of Mother Nature. We've got to wait for more ice to melt so that we can dive areas that we've identified as potential places where he could be," he said.

Once divers are in the water, there are plans to use a side sonar to look into the deeper parts of the river and quickly identify if there are areas the divers should focus on.

In the meantime, the OPP are also taking the tips from the volunteers who are searching the riverbanks and floodplain.

"We have a clothing description. We're not releasing that to the public at this point because if we do find clothing, we know what is the correct clothing and what isn't," Nancekivell said.

"Certain pieces of clothing have piqued our interest. We've check them out, so far that's been negative other than some clothing from the van. Any family carries spare clothing for their children and other spare items."

'We want to find him'

Nancekivell said having hundreds of volunteers helping in the search has helped cover a lot of ground and ruled out spots where Kaden's body could be.

"It's been a tremendous gathering, especially on weekends. One weekend we've had 500 people, the past few weekends we had 300," he said.

"Even on the March Break we were averaging about 80 people a day showing up. Most people on March Break are out of town, vacationing," he added. "That really shows the community support."

He added there have even been people coming from Ottawa, Huntsville and Wiarton to volunteer.

"Everybody wants to find this young lad but we have to ensure our officers are safe when they're doing that," he said.

"It's a long time, but I'll tell you something: It's a three-year-old boy. And we want to find him."