Four years had passed since Kelsey Smith had seen her husband. It wasn’t that he was missing – just out of reach, in a sense, 168 feet underwater.

The body of 27-year-old Jaxon Smith had rested on the bed of Giauque Lake, 95 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, since his vehicle fell through thin ice in late 2007. The RCMP were unable to recover his body, leaving Ms. Smith clinging to a faint hope he might still be alive.

Five months ago, she vowed to find him. It wasn’t the RCMP who could help, or even a Canadian. Instead, Ms. Smith turned to Gene and Sandy Ralston, an Idaho couple who zig-zag North America in their 32-foot motor home, helping recover bodies from lakes and rivers when authorities can’t, or won’t. They don't get paid, and in some years rack up nearly 50,000 kilometres. They do it simply because people ask.

They agreed to come to Yellowknife. Last week, it took them 20 minutes to find Mr. Smith's body.

“We look beyond that morbid part of it, the gooey part of it,” Mr. Ralston said. “We look way beyond that, to what it means to the family.”
Idaho couple with odd hobby bring drowning victim home - The Globe and Mail