The body of 34-year-old Duane Kaka who went missing in the Whanganui River has this morning been recovered by the Police National Dive Squad.
Mr Kaka was swept away last Saturday (14 January) as he attempted to swim across the river which was at flood. He was with a group who had been canoeing the river on a staged trip.
Daily searches were carried out involving Police, LandSAR, Ruapehu Alpine Rescue and local tour boat operators. From Thursday, 19 January the family of Mr Kaka offered to take over the daily boat searches. At approximately 4.50pm yesterday family members carrying out one of those boat searches spotted the submerged body of Mr Kaka about 1km downstream from the Mangapurua landing and contacted the Police.
The location posed too much of a challenge to safely recover Mr Kaka without additional expertise, so the Police National Dive Squad were contacted to assist. The Dive Squad recovered Mr Kaka's body this morning.
Mr Kaka was discovered approximately 16 to 17kms down river from where he went missing.