The body of a missing snowmobiler from Grunthal has been located, nearly three months after he was last seen in the Whiteshell.

Manitoba RCMP report on Monday, at approximately 10 am, Lac du Bonnet RCMP received a report that remains had been located on Eleanor Lake. The RCMP Water Transport Unit attended the scene to assist. The remains have been confirmed as Dan Lemay.

The news comes just a few weeks after search teams, including the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team, once again attempted to locate a body or Lemay's sled but came up empty.

On February 21st, at approximately 11:25 am, Lac du Bonnet RCMP received a report of an overdue snowmobiler. 50-year-old Dan Lemay from Grunthal left Pinewood Lodge on a snowmobile trip around 4 pm to retrieve a broken snowmobile that was left at Rennie. He had called a friend at approximately 7:15 pm, to advise that he was unsure of his location, but believed he was close to Nutimik Lake. He again contacted this individual at 9:15 pm saying he thought he was near Pinewood Lodge. That was the last contact with Lemay.

By eight o'clock on the morning of February 22nd, local riders who know all of the snowmobile trails in the area, had started searching for him, but with no success. RCMP were on scene, along with a plane to search for any clues. RCMP also brought in a ground search team as did the Office of the Fire Commissioner.

On February 23rd, at approximately 5 pm, RCMP called off the search for Dan Lemay. This was the result of two reports of a lone snowmobiler heading north on Eleanor Lake on the night of February 21st, near the time Lemay was reported missing. This lead aerial searchers to an area of open water. Trained ice rescue technicians from the Office of the Fire Commissioner attended to the open water and located snowmobile tracks that lead to broken ice. There were no tracks leading away from the site.

Police presumed that Lemay drowned as two days of searching by more than 50 volunteers and numerous trained search and rescue teams did not lead to any other evidence of where Lemay or his snowmobile may have gone. Searchers believed Lemay entered the water and did not resurface.

At the time, police said the search for Lemay and the snowmobile would resume in the spring once conditions would be safe for a dive team to engage in the search.