Service held for missing man

RENO, Nev. – Nearly a year after she was found on the verge of starvation in a stranded van in the Nevada wilderness, a Canadian woman and others paid tribute to a husband who didn’t make it out alive.

A public memorial service for Albert Chretien was held Saturday in his hometown of Penticton, British Columbia, just north of the Washington border.

Rita Chretien, 56, was found weak but alive May 6 in the rugged mountains of northeastern Nevada near the Idaho line. She stayed in the van for seven weeks, surviving on trail mix, candy and water from a stream.

But there has been no sign of her 59-year-old husband since he set out on foot in search of help on March 22, 2011, three days after the couple’s van got stuck on a muddy road.

Intensive searches turned up no sign of Albert Chretien, and Elko County sheriff’s investigators have said they believe he is dead.

“Rita and family have carried on with life and are not relying on finding remains of Albert,” said family spokesman Hannah Hyland. “We think that more than ordinary efforts were made to find Albert.”

The memorial service was scheduled after family and friends “very reluctantly accepted” several months ago that Albert Chretien could not have survived, added Hyland, a neighbor and close friend of Rita Chretien.

“The service represents closure,” she said. “In her heart, Rita realized early on that Albert likely succumbed because of the weather. She has made peace with this.”

The Chretiens owned a commercial excavating business and were headed to Las Vegas for a trade show. They left a highway after using their new GPS unit to find the shortest route and ended up on a remote forest road miles from the nearest town.

Sheriff’s officials remain hopeful a hunter or hiker will stumble on evidence of Albert Chretien. He set out with a cellphone and GPS for Mountain City, a couple days’ journey from the van.