The police search of the Nith River for Robbie Reiner has ended, but the father of the missing five-year-old says he’ll check the riverbank every day until his son is found.

“We have to keep walking. He could have went 70 kilometres; he could have went half a kilometre,” Bill Reiner tells CTV News.

“We don’t know. There’s so many variables. I’m not giving up.”

Robbie Reiner left his New Hamburg home on Boxing Day.

He and his father had been piling firewood outside.

They came inside for a snack, and it was sometime in the few minutes after that when Robbie ended up outside once again.

When the rest of the family joined Bill downstairs, they realized Robbie was missing.

They followed his footsteps to the nearby river, where they often spend summer “beach days” as a family – and where some of Robbie’s discarded clothes lay on the shore.

“He wanted to play in the water, and that’s where he went. He didn’t know the danger of it,” Reiner says.

Seeing no trace of their son – who Bill Reiner calls an “awesome little guy” who was “always smiling and always happy” – the Reiners called police.

Officers quickly responded, and spent the next five days searching through the river for any sign of Robbie.

Sonar devices, an OPP dive team and even a helicopter were brought in as the search intensified – but Monday afternoon, police called off the search, saying they’d carefully combed over every part of the river it was safe to search.

Volunteers quickly picked up where police left off, organizing a search of the banks to take place Tuesday morning.

Among them was Mike Bowden, who brought his daughter to the search.

“We’re just here to help and show our support,” he said.

“We know it’s been exhausted with everyone searching already, but you never know – glimmer of hope.”

Bill Reiner praises the support his family’s received from New Hamburg and the wider community.

“I couldn’t believe how quick everything got going, and the support we had right from the start,” he says.

A trust fund has been set up for the Reiner family.

Donations can be made at any branch of TD Bank, with account number 6343610 and branch number 0244.