German police continue search for Canadian

HALIFAX — Two dozen divers carefully searched the murky
waters of a German canal on Thursday after police dogs
zeroed in on a spot close to where a young Canadian
disappeared on the weekend.
Police divers were reported to be focusing on a small area in
the canal in Hamm, Germany, where Tiffany Tanner,
a 20-year-old competitive paddler from Nova Scotia, was
last seen Sunday as she kayaked with friends.Police had
found nothing by early evening after three specially trained
dogs indicated there might be something below the water’s
surface, but spokesman Klaus Finke said divers would
resume their search at the Datteln-Hamm canal this morning.
In addition to 24 divers, a police statement said a helicopter
and sonar device were also used.
Frank Lahme, a reporter at the local paper in Hamm, said
the work was made difficult by poor visibility in water that
was so cloudy it obscured anything more than 20 to 30 cm
away.‘‘
They had three dogs in a boat and each one of them did
locate a place’’ where they thought they might find a corpse,
Lahme said Thursday, adding that divers had already been
looking for two hours before the search was called off at
6:45 p.m. local time.
Investigators have been combing the narrow waterway and
interviewing possible witnesses since the young woman
from Dartmouth, N.S., vanished after apparently going
out of sight of three male friends who were in another boat
ahead of her.
Her mother, Lisa Tanner, and stepfather flew to Germany
on Monday, hoping to find clues in the mysterious
disappearance that has perplexed residents of the
small city northeast of Dusseldorf.
They visited the canal and met with the family the young
woman had been living with while doing domestic work.
‘‘I’m sure they’re going through a very rough time over
there,’’ Darrell Fraser, Tanner’s uncle, said Thursday
after speaking with the couple.
link:
http://www.brandonsun.com/pfstory.php?story_id=19422