The family of an Indo-Canadian man who went missing last year in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia, has reached out to the public to help fund their ongoing search efforts.
The search for Prabhdeep Srawn, 25, of Ontario, Canada, who went missing May 13, 2013 is scheduled to begin again in February or March this year, the Canberra Times reported Tuesday.
The search operation is privately funded by the Srawn family which has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the hunt.
A student of Bond University in Queensland, Prabhdeep Srawn’s disappearance triggered a large-scale land and air search over two weeks before it was abandoned in June last year due to heavy snow.
Police continued the search in November and December last year but were unable to find any trace of the missing man.
The family has been running their own search and rescue campaign, hiring specialists as well as flying volunteers in from Canada to continue the search, the report said.
Last year, the family was also offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who would help find the missing Indo-Canadian man.
The search has cost the family up to $400,000 dollars, forcing them to sell their car as well as property in India and take out a second mortgage on their house.
“We spent so much that we thought we’d get an outcome on the second round of searching we funded,” Prabhdeep Srawn’s sister was quoted as saying