Body of TRU international student who disappeared in river recovered by police, family confirms they've been notified

Search crews locate body

Photo: Michael Potestio

RCMP patrol the shoreline in a Zodiac boat for missing TRU student Jatin Garg.

UPDATE: 3:38 p.m.

Relatives of a Thompson Rivers University student who drowned after being swept away from a North Kamloops beach will now begin the process of repatriating his body to India.

The body of Jatin Garg, 27, was located on Tuesday near McArthur Island. He went missing in the river nine days earlier while retrieving a volleyball from the water off Overlander Beach.

His cousin, Rithik Garg, told Castanet from India that police recently notified the family. He said police provided the family information to contact the BC Coroners Service to begin the repatriation process.

He said Garg's family is devastated.

ORIGINAL: 3:04 p.m.

The body of a 27-year-old Thompson Rivers University student who drowned after being swept away from a North Kamloops beach has now been recovered.

The body of Jatin Garg was located on Tuesday near McArthur Island.

"A man who was last seen being pulled by the river current has sadly been found and confirmed deceased following the recent recovery of his body in the Thompson River," RCMP Sgt. Chris Kienzle said in a news release Tuesday.

Garg, a 27-year-old international student from Mansa, a city of about 85,000 people in Punjab, India, was identified by relatives to Castanet as the man who went missing in the river.

Kienzle said police have let the man's family know that his body was located.

Emergency crews were called to Overlander Park at about 5:15 p.m. on July 6, for a report of a man caught in the undercurrent. Police and search crews were out scouring the river for the student in the days following Garg's disappearance.

“We hope that his discovery can bring a small amount of closure for his family and friends," Kienzle said in the release.

Garg's first cousin and father identified him to Castanet, describing their loved one as a hard worker who needed no help from his family who came to Canada to study, get exposure and build a good life.

Garg was the eldest of two siblings and unmarried. He was also the first person in the family to travel abroad. He enrolled at TRU to study supply chain management.

Garg had been in Kamloops for less than a year, having arrived last August from India.

Photo: Rithik Garg

Jatin Garg was studying supply chain management at TRU and had been living in Kamloops less than a year.