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UPDATE: Missing swimmer found dead near Nanaimo River

Robert Hudson’s family reported the 61-year-old Qualicum Beach man missing on Saturday night
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Four search and rescue organizations as well as RCMP are searching for a missing Qualicum Beach man near Nanaimo River. (NEWS BULLETIN photo)

A missing swimmer was found dead Sunday near Nanaimo River.

The body of Robert Hudson was found by members of the public late in the afternoon on Sunday, and police directed emergency response personnel to the location, according to a Nanaimo RCMP press release.

The cause of death has not been determined, but foul play is not suspected. The family has been notified and the B.C. Coroners Service is now investigating.

Four search and rescue teams worked together on the high-urgency search for 61-year-old.

Hudson left his Qualicum Beach home Saturday morning to go swimming and was reported missing that night when he didn’t return. His sports car was located parked along Nanaimo River Road and Nanaimo Search and Rescue was called out at about midnight, said Paul Berry, a search manager with Comox Valley Search and Rescue.

“Since then we’ve had about 51 searches on the ground from four different teams,” he said, adding that a helicopter, drone, and both RCMP and search and rescue dogs had gone out looking.

According to a Nanaimo RCMP press release, Hudson’s family was extremely concerned because Hudson had significant medical issues and required daily medication.

Berry explained that Hudson’s car was considered a last-known location and a starting point for the search radius.

“You start with all the travel routes, so trails, roads, power lines, all those sorts of things and to this point, nothing located…” said Berry on Sunday. “Swift-water teams have searched downstream from this location for quite a long distance.”

He said mutual aid between search-and-rescue crews is very common in operations of this nature.

“Particularly if you have a lone subject with a significant medical condition in high, extreme temperatures, absolutely,” said Berry. “This is a high-urgency search for this man, so as many resources earlier on is better.”

-files from Philip Wolf