Focus turns to recovery in NS as search to find missing toddler enters third day

The missing child is three-year-old Dylan Ehler and police say that the search has now turned into a recovery operation.

The Department of Natural Resources' and Colchester Ground Search and Rescue members came back to the scene on Friday at 8:30 a.m., reports the Truro Police Service.

The command post is now at the local police detachment after moving from its original location near Salmon River.

"The team is still actively looking for Dylan," police said in a statement.

"Our sincere thoughts and prayers are with Dylan’s family and we appreciate the continued support from our community and beyond."

Dylan disappeared on Wednesday afternoon shortly after he was playing outside with his grandmother at her house on Elizabeth Street.

During a news conference on Thursday, Truro Police Chief Dave MacNeil said that his grandmother was distracted with the dog and Dylan was gone when she turned around.

"His grandmother became briefly distracted and turned around for a moment, and when she turned back, Dylan was no longer in the yard," MacNeil said.

Dylan's grandfather, Norman Brown said that Dylan loves to run and is very active.

"He thinks it’s a game. Once he’s out and about, he loves to run. He was outside with his grandmother. Then he was gone," Brown said.

At about 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, Dylan was reported missing and MacNeil said officers arrived at the scene within four minutes.

A large search followed involving local police, RCMP, the Truro Fire Service, a K9 unit, a DNR helicopter and Ground Search and Rescue teams from Halifax and Colchester County.

"There's a quick-moving brook, Lepper Brook, that runs parallel to Elizabeth Street," MacNeil said at Thursday's news conference.

"The water is very high there this time of year and it's moving fairly quickly."

He added that one of the boy's rubber boots was found by search crews in Lepper Brook on Wednesday at around 7:20 p.m.

The other boot was found not far down the brook less than two hours later.

A search continued throughout the night and into the next morning involving underwater cameras and thermal-imaging.

On Thursday, the provincial dive team began helping with the search.

There were over 60 people involved in the search on Thursday. It was mostly focused around the waterways with crews making their way along the Salmon River while a helicopter searched from above.

MacNeil said that they do not require any additional help as residents have been kindly offering their assistance.

"When people are untrained and they do try to help search, oftentimes they miss clues, maybe trample over evidence, or maybe become a risk of falling in the raging water themselves, so we're just asking people to show support, prayers and thoughts for the family," he said.