'She deserves to be found': Strangers join family in search for Cortney Lake - Action News
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'She deserves to be found': Strangers join family in search for Cortney Lake

Volunteer searchers with no connection to Cortney Lake have found themselves drawn into her tragic story after following the case on social media.

Volunteers with no connection to Cortney Lake are joining search efforts

Cortney Lake's aunt Donna Walsh outlines the parameters of the ground search on Monday in Paradise. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

The search to find Cortney Lake has expanded far beyond her circle of family and friends.

Many volunteers with no prior connection to the missing woman, whose disappearance is now being investigated by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary as a homicide, have found themselves drawn into her tragic story after following the case on social media.

At a ground search in Paradise on Monday the third in the past four days more than 50 volunteers combed the woods surrounding the Kenmount Road west development in hopes of finding Lake's body.

Kim Kelly (centre) listens for further instructions at the search for Cortney Lake on Monday. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

"She's someone's child, she's a mom, she's a niece.She's a human being who deserves to be found," said Kim Kelly, who has participated in several of the searches for Lake.

"Her family deserves to know where she is and I feel like I can do my part to help."

It would be your worst nightmare to be looking for your child.- Kimberley Street, volunteer

Kelly said the searches are now a well-oiled machine, with Lake's aunts Glenda Power and Donna Walsh directing groups to divide and conquer, and mark off areas that have been searched with pieces of rope.

It's a grim and often physically tasking job, but Kelly believes that it's one that must be done to help bring closure to the family and justice for Lake.

"We've gotta bring her home. Disillusionment is not an option.She deserves to be found and we as a community have come together to help do that," said Kelly.

Volunteer Kimberley Street ties a ribbon onto a tree to mark off an area as "searched" during efforts to find Cortney Lake on Monday. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

Fellow volunteer Kimberley Street, who hasnow participated in four ground searches, saidshe'll do whatever she can to help out.

"I don't really have any connection," she said. "As a parent, I can't imagine it.It would be your worst nightmare to be looking for your child. Anything that I can do to help in that regard is important."

Family supportive

Lake's cousin Kathleen Brenton said the family is incredibly appreciative of all the help.

"It shows the power of social media, the power of people coming together for a cause," she said. "It shows people trying to take a terrible tragedy and bring some comfort to the family in having their loved one returned home."

Kathleen Brenton, Cortney Lake's cousin, looks for signs of Lake while conducting a ground search near Kenmount Road in Paradise on Monday. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

According to Brenton, each person who is coming to search for Lake is doing theirpart to help fight back against violence towardswomen.

"It's also an effort to see justice done," she said. "It's standing up for all the Cortneys, all the women in the world who meet tragic and horrific death."

Brenton said she's committed to the search for the long haul.

"As long as this family wants to search, I'll be behind them."

At the ground search to help find Cortney Lake on Monday, maps were handed out to each group to determine a core focus area to investigate. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)