california diver says he will search johnston canyon for body of man who drowned two weeks ago
4 minute read
pavlo shemchuk is shown in a gofundme post . he passed away in a drowning accident west of calgary, alta. due to dangerous water conditions, recovery teams have not yet been able to recover his body, and efforts to bring him home are still ongoing.
gofundme
the family of a man presumed dead after jumping into johnston canyon earlier this month have found a diver willing to go into the waterfall to try to recover his body.
pending approval from parks canada, juan heredia is expected to fly to banff on sunday from california to attempt to recover the body of pavlo shemchuk, who has been missing since may 1.
shemchuk visited banff with his cousin and best friend in early may, and during a trip to johnston canyon he jumped into the water. he never resurfaced and is presumed dead.
in a phone call wednesday, nicolette babbe, shemchuk’s girlfriend, said parks canada carried out an extensive investigation over the weekend following the disappearance.
“they did a lot of different things like putting a pole in the water with cameras,” babbe said. “they’ve done drone searches, they’ve had people walking around.”
however, after two days with no sign of shemchuk, parks canada suspended the search and reopened the area to visitors.
parks canada has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the search.
however, the frigid water temperatures and high water levels of the spring runoff made the search hazardous to continue.
babbe said she and shemchuk’s family have accepted that he has most likely not survived.
“it’s very difficult to get sleep at night,” she said. “we understand that’s the circumstances that likely happened. but until we actually have his body, it’s very difficult to grieve.”
diver experienced in recovering bodies
juan heredia, 54, based in california has offered to fly to banff and dive in the johnston canyon to find and retrieve pavlo shemchuk who has been missing since may 1 in banff, alta, west of calgary.
photo supplied
heredia is familiar with the horrific circumstances that shemchuk’s family and loved ones are facing.
in 2023, his stepson was involved a car crash and drowned. eleven months later, a teenager drowned in a waterway in stockton, calif., where heredia lives.
a six-day search to recover the body by state agencies yielded nothing. then, heredia contacted the mother of the victim and conducted his own search. he said he found the boy in 30 minutes.
advertisement
since then, he has travelled across the united states as a recovery diver, often covering the costs himself, retrieving the bodies of drowning victims and returning them to grieving families in hopes of bringing them closure.
to fund his expeditions, he started the non-profit angels recovery dive, which subsists on community donations.
in the past two years, he has recovered 13 bodies from waterways across the united states.
“they’re sons and daughters,” he said.
“every single authority i talk to, for them it’s a body,” he added. “when you accept that it’s a body, then it’s (just) a body. (they say), just wait it’s going to float and someone’s going to spot it.
“for me it’s not like that. that’s someone’s son or daughter that the family is waiting to have an open casket for. i think that’s where the pressure comes for me to get them out as soon as possible.”
heredia has been diving for more than 30 years and has taught scuba diving.
in some cases, he has found the victims within hours or minutes, after days-long searches by authorities.
his longest successful search took 16 days.
not every search has been successful. heredia is still searching for the body of christina murphy, whose suv was found submerged in kern river in southern california in late 2024.
“i think an animal took her out of the water,” he said. “my way to do it will be to buy a cadaver dog and try to (search) in the woods.”
he can’t say how long the search for shemchuk could take.
“we think he’s still in the upper pool,” he said. if his suspicions are correct, shemchuk’s body could be retrieved in a matter of minutes.
“if he’s not in the upper pool, i’ll look in the lower pool. if he’s not there, i will search in the river.”
heredia specializes in river and waterfall diving, making him especially adaptable to diving in the canyon.
advertisement
his biggest worry is if shemchuk’s body has been moving in the river in the past two weeks.
“if he’s moving, it’s going to be (more difficult) to find him,” he said. “there are bears there. if he’s floating and taken by the river, he’s going to be on the shore at some point and the animals are going to get him. so it’s really urgent to find him.”
drowning victim was an outdoor enthusiast
babbe and shemchuk had only been dating two months when shemchuk went missing. and in that time had experienced a number of adventures together, including skiing and skydiving.
“he was so outdoorsy — i’ve never done so many fun things in my life, (and it’s) because of him,” she said.
“he lived to explore new things. he lived to try challenging things, to overcome them, and has just done so much throughout the past 25 years to look back on. and i think he just wanted to continue adding to to what he’s done,” she said.
his friends and family described him as caring and community-oriented, according to babbe.
originally from ukraine, shemchuk had moved to pennsylvania with his family and later settled in arizona, where he met babbe.
“he was active in his church, in his community,” she said, adding that shemchuk was in the process of getting certified as a physical therapist.
“he’d say, ‘oh, i’m going to stay (at the clinic) longer because this one lady loves to talk,” babbe recalled. “and he would sit and catch up with her.
he was the light of everyone’s life.”
a gofundme created to support shemchuk’s family with recovery-related and memorial expenses had raised $25,369 as of thursday.
share story
