Home / Crime and Justice / Empty Boat Mystery: RCMP Response Criticized
Empty Boat Mystery: RCMP Response Criticized
19 Jul
Summary
- RCMP officers joked about shooting an unmanned boat.
- The boat's owner, Matthew Hamm, was later found deceased.
- An official report called the RCMP's initial response unacceptable.
In September 2020, RCMP officers Constables Wood and Riedel responded to a report of an unmanned boat circling on Weyakwin Lake. Instead of initiating a serious investigation, they texted jokes about shooting the vessel. Unbeknownst to them, 24-year-old Matthew Hamm had launched the boat earlier and had not returned. His parents, James and Helen Hamm, began searching for him, unaware of the police's dismissive attitude toward the unmanned boat.
As the search for Matthew intensified, the CRCC later found the constables had "incomprehensibly failed to grasp the possibility that the unmanned boat represented a lost or missing person." The commission's report, issued earlier this year, criticized the RCMP's "wholly unacceptable" and "ill-informed" initial response, stating it delayed crucial search efforts during the most critical period following Matthew's disappearance.
Matthew's body was discovered the following spring, on May 12, 2021. The coroner ruled his death an accidental drowning, a conclusion questioned by his father, James, who cited inconsistencies and an independent pathologist's report. The CRCC recommended disciplinary review for the constables and an apology to the Hamm family, which was issued by the RCMP's Saskatchewan commanding officer.
