Ronald Murray Boyd was a good friend, and we flew together many times. He was a helicopter pilot who discovered the wreckage of Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko's aircraft on June 7, 1962, about 100 kilometers north of Cochrane, Ontario, Canada. The wreckage, which had been missing for 11 years, was a Fairchild 24 belonging to the other occupant and pilot in command, dentist Henry Hudson.

There were various searches for this aircraft over the years when people thought they saw "something" in the massive forest areas in Ontario, but on this day, the fallen Fairchild was finally discovered.

On this day, Ron (accompanied by his engineer Phil Weston) spotted the Fairchild 24, and for the first time Bill Barilko's wreckage was officially discovered.

They marked the location on a map, and threw toilet paper rolls out of the helicopter in order to "mark" the area so they could find it by foot. It was all they had on board. Then they landed and proceeded in by foot. They found the plane and both skeletons at the wreckage site. The pilot's skeleton was in the left seat, covered in moss, and Barilko's skeleton was scattered over the top...his skull shattered.

Below are the photos along with documents sent thanking Ron for his part in the discovery.

*** See the MAP below to see the exact GPS location of the wreckage ***
N 49 44 06
W 81 13 21

The aircraft was retrieved from the site in 2011 and taken to Timmins.