The search for missing Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini has entered its seventh day, meaning it has now been a full week since the local politician went missing.
Greater Sudbury Police along with North Shore Search and Rescue began conducting an active grid search in a swampy frozen wetland area off of Panache Lake Road on Feb. 2. Those efforts continue today.
GSPS officers and more than a dozen civilian searchers were part of the effort, trudging through knee-deep snow and heavy brush in an effort to find Vagnini.
While that search is underway, an overhead search effort continues with the aid of a Ontario Provincial Police helicopter. No word has been issued on whether anything has been seen.
In the past, helicopters have been helpful by eliminating areas where the missing person or their vehicle has not been seen, freeing up time and reaources for searching other areas.
Part of the Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) search effort for missing city councilor Michael Vagnini involves the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones.
GSPS Const. Marc Savignac was operating one of the devices Friday. He used the device to search an area based on information provided by a civilian who may have seen a person or footprints in a specific area along Panache Lake Road.
The drone device is a MAVIC-2 model, which is tiny but powerful with a long battery life and high-resolution photo and video capacity.
Savignac said the advantage of the device is that it allows the observer to see a large area to determine if there is anything available to help police in their search. Just as important, he confirmed, is that the drone can rule out large areas where nothing significant has been found.
While hovering the drone over a frozen wetland area Friday, he was able to quickly identify some larger and smaller dark spots from about 120 metres up in the air.
Once the drone descended close to the frozen swamp and lake area, the large dark spot, which might have looked like a person, was actually a tree stump.
Some of the holes in the ice, which might have looked suspicious from higher up, were found to be ice fishing holes.
Savignac said the drone records everything he sees on the small monitor attached to the drone controller. He said if there is a question or concern about what he has looked at, the video can be easily reviewed on a larger high-resolution computer screen simply by downloading the information from the on-board video card.
Another advantage of the device is that police were able to pinpoint other police officers and civilians who were still on the ground, searching nearby. If anything unusual was seen from the air, a simple radio call would enable the ground team to move in and check it out.
Vagnini, 62, was last seen Jan. 27 driving a black 2021 Ram 1500 truck with Ontario licence plate BK 22178. It has a broken passenger side tail light.
As part of a news release yesterday, Jan. 31, GSPS released a residential video surveillance camera that captured Vagnini’s truck travelling westbound on McCharles Lake Road, between Whitefish and Naughton, at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 27.
This, Greater Sudbury Police Service noted in a media release issued at 4 p.m. on Jan. 31, is the last verified sighting of the Greater Sudbury city council member for Ward 2.
Shortly after 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 27, a vehicle matching the description was captured on video surveillance by a local business on Regional Road 55 west of Highway 24. Although it appeared to be driving eastbound toward Lively, GSPS reported that they are satisfied that video does not show Vagnini’s truck.
Vagnini was last seen wearing a bright yellow hooded sweater, green pants and black running shoes. Earlier in the day, he was seen wearing an Erie Otters jersey over top of the yellow hooded sweater. He does not have his phone with him.
Anyone who spoke with Michael in the days prior to Jan. 27, and who has not already spoken with police, is asked to call a dedicated tip line at 705-675-9171 Ext. 2320. Detectives are looking to gather additional information regarding conversations prior to Vagnini going missing.
Len Gillis is a reporter at Sudbury.com.
