An ATV operator and passenger were found deceased after they were reported missing near Batchawana Bay on the afternoon of June 3.
The bodies of 78-year-old Rudolph Wheatley and 76-year-old Vera Molochnikova were located the next morning by police, states the Sault Ste Marie Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in a news release.
Their ATV was found submerged in the Batchawana River several kilometres from where they were originally reported missing.
Full text of the OPP release follows:
On June 3, 2022 shortly after 4 p.m., members from the Sault Ste Marie Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the OPP's Emergency Response Team (ERT), North East (Sault Ste Marie) Canine Unit, Batchewana First Nation Police Service, the OPP Helicopter and Sault Search and Rescue responded to a report of two missing people in the Tribag Mine Road area in Batchawana Bay.
Investigation determined three side-by-side ATVs were on a bush road and two had crossed and went through a hazard in the road and travelled several hundred metres and waited for the third side-by-side to catch up. The third side-by-side never caught up.
Police who were in the area attended immediately and started a search with search efforts continuing throughout the night. On June 4, 2022 shortly after 10 a.m., police located the missing side-by-side submerged in the Batchawana River several kilometres from where they had gone missing.
The driver, 78-year-old Rudolph Wheatley, and passenger, 76-year-old Vera Molochnikova, both from Sault Ste Marie were located deceased.
The OPP's Technical Traffic Collision Investigators (TTCI) and the Office of the Chief Coroner - Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (OCC-FPS) are assisting with this investigation.