When paramedic Jim Barnes left his home in Fort St. John to go hunting on Oct. 18, he asked his partner Micaela Sawyer — who’s also a paramedic — if she wanted to join him.
She declined, so Barnes took the couple’s dog Murphy, an 18-month-old red golden retriever with him.
When Barnes and Murphy didn’t return home, Sawyer reported them missing. Barnes’ truck was found on a forest service road near the town of Chetwynd the next day. An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of the man or his dog.
Last week, someone posted a photo of an injured, emaciated red golden retriever they had found wandering 120 kilometres from where Barnes’ truck was found. Sawyer raced over to see the animal.
“I was like, wow, this really looks like my dog. But at the same time, this dog was battered, bruised, broken, swollen, like beyond belief – so swollen. So that was really hard,” said Sawyer, adding “Anyone who owns a red golden retriever will know, like 98 per cent of them, they all look the same.”
Murphy wasn’t tattooed or microchipped, and neither was the dog that was found. But after spending some time with him, Sawyer is now convinced it’s Murphy.
“It was a combination of a lot of things, and lot of cross-referencing of pictures and then certain behavioural things Murphy exhibits that are so specific to him,” said Sawyer.
But police searching for Jim Barnes want proof it’s his dog.
