Father of missing Lac La Ronge hunter believes son is dead

It’s been nearly two weeks since Billy Taylor was reported missing in the Lac La Ronge area and his father believes his son won’t be coming home alive.

“There’s been no signs of anything,” Bill Taylor Sr. said. “We’ve had the planes up twice now, and no fires or other tracks have been spotted.”

Ever a realist, Taylor believes his son died and has come to terms with what happened.

“It was just an unfortunate accident. The snow was blowing, maybe he just got off [the ice] a bit, or just hit a bad spot.”

Billy has a wife and four children. The Christmas season was rough on them.

“They still had hope, at the beginning,” Taylor said. “Now they’re going to have to realize it’s done.”

He said the tracks left by his son ended on a patch of ice that was too thin for rescuers to walk on.

Through the tragedy, Taylor is thankful for all the community support in helping him recover the body of his son.

“There’s been lots of people we can never thank because they’ve done so much. I think at one time there was 40 people,” he said. “People are going to have to go back to work, so it’s going to be up and down. But there’s some regular people who show up every day, so it’s well appreciated.”

Billy had been traveling from Fox Point to La Ronge on his motorcycle when he disappeared. He was driving a red 440 Polaris, and was wearing an orange safety vest.

An experienced hunter and trapper, the family says he had exceptional outdoor survival skills.