HALIFAX -- Dozens of family members, friends and even complete strangers joined Jason Ehler and Ashley Brown on Sunday to continue the search for their three-year-old son Dylan, who disappeared on May 6.
Trudging through bushes, a brook, near the railroad tracks and into the woods, a team of volunteers searched for any sign of the missing toddler.
Ehler’s father Jason surveyed from the air, with a team of volunteers who used drone software that can detect what the eye cannot.
“We know Dylan was wearing a camouflage jacket, a red shirt,” says Lisa Fenton of Wings of Mercy, a volunteer organization that helps families search for missing loved ones with drones. ”So after the drone flies, we will put in the software to look for the colour red or the green of the camouflage.”
Fenton has already been involved in several aerial searches for Dylan, but so far, no luck.
“We’ve had a lot of hits, we’ve come out and we’ve looked at them and unfortunately it had nothing to do with Dylan,” says Fenton. “There’s a lot of Tim Horton’s cups that flashed red.”
Following Dylan’s disappearance, an extensive search was launched of Lepper Brook, the Salmon River and surrounding areas, but only his boots were found.
A police-led search in May used infrared cameras, drones and a helicopter.
While Truro police declined CTV News’ request for an update on Sunday, his parents say police called them on Saturday.
“They believe Dylan’s disappearance was a freak accident,” says Dylan’s father Jason Ehler. “I don’t believe that whatsoever. There’s no evidence of anything other than boots. No footprints, no broken branches. Who’s to say someone didn’t throw (the boots) in.”
His parents believe their son may have been kidnapped.
They say they are holding onto hope, that some information is found from the ongoing searches.
“That’s all we have is to hope he’s still alive, and that someone will bring him home,” says Jason Ehler. “Or hopefully we can just find something because we don’t know anything.”
Until then, Ehler says he’ll continue to search every day.
Anyone with information into the whereabouts of Dylan Ehler is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.