The body of Kyle Bambrick was found Sunday. (CBC)

An 18-year-old who left a New Year's Eve party on P.E.I. in the middle of a blizzard appears to have wandered to a local river's edge before succumbing to the storm, and RCMP say it is likely many questions about the death will remain unanswered.

Kyle Bambrick was last seen alive at 3 a.m. on New Year's Day. He was attending a party at the Dog River Golf Links in Clyde River, west of Charlottetown, when he got into an argument with someone and left alone.

He was wearing a light winter jacket and jeans and sneakers. Outside a storm was blowing that would drop 45 centimetres of snow over the course of the day.

It took searchers until Sunday to find his body, and only then after the search had been expanded to what was considered "low probability" areas. They found the body along the Clyde River, about 800 metres from the clubhouse.

"One of our search teams located some tracks that looked to be fairly old," said Ken Hall of P.E.I. Ground Search and Rescue.

"From there we asked the police dog services to come in. Between the team and the police dog they did locate him, right alongside the water, semi-submerged."

Much of incident will remain a mystery

RCMP are continuing the investigation, which will include an autopsy.

"We're going to be working with the coroner's office and we are going to follow up with any witnesses, anybody that needs to be interviewed," said RCMP Sgt. Denis Morin.

"It is going to be hard in this case … there is going to be a lot of questions left unanswered about what led to the event, what caused Mr. Bambrick to leave and everything else, and how he ended up at the location and where he was."

Morin said it will likely be another week before the investigation is complete.

Donations solicited

Friends of the family have arranged for a number of businesses in the area to accept donations to help cover the costs associated with Bambrick's death.

Donations will be accepted at

• The Movie Gallery in Stratford.
• MacWilliams' Shell in North River.
• Irving stations in Winsloe, West Royalty and Hunter River.
• Petro-Canada in Winsloe.
• Esso in Cornwall.
• Save Easy in Cornwall.
• Vogue Optical locations in Charlottetown.