UPDATE:
Peterborough Police with the assistance of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) conducted search of the Otonabee River today. At approximately 3:15 pm, the OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit located the body of missing person Brett Leblanc.
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Peterborough police and residents continue to search for a missing Trent University student last seen nearly a week ago.
On Sunday, a large community-organized search joined the Peterborough Police Service as they combed the campus of the university for any signs of Brett Michael LeBlanc. The 24-year-old man was reported missing on Friday and was last seen late Tuesday night on campus.
Peterborough police and campus security launched a search on Saturday but it did not yield any positive results.
Police and family say LeBlanc is legally blind and able to walk without assistance and typically wears black sunglasses.
He is Caucasian, five feet 10 inches tall, 169 pounds with brown medium-length hair and a thin moustache and was wearing white high-top sneakers.
A heavy snowfall impeded Sunday morning’s search of the campus, which included a ground search and patrol of the Otonabee River by police and Peterborough Fire Services and an aerial search conducted by an OPP helicopter and drone.
Prior to the search, LeBlanc’s mother Cheryl posted a plea on Facebook for anyone to call her at call 905-809-1059 or police at 705-876-1122 if they have any information on LeBlanc’s whereabouts.
“Brett if you are seeing or hearing this, please come home to us, we need you,” she concluded.
https://facebook.com/503675439/videos/10164348235860440/
Family friend Tammy Cockerton-Gouldbourn helped organize Sunday’s search and although the search failed to yield results, she was pleased with the turnout and effort.
“We all put in a lot of good effort today and covered a lot of ground which is just one step closer to being able to rule out the possibility that he is lost,” she said on Facebook.
She noted LeBlanc had a routine and rarely left campus during the weekdays and only went home to his parents on weekends. The rare time he left campus was to visit a friend’s house.
Peterborough police are meeting Monday morning to determine the next stage of the search efforts.
