By Shannon McFarlin News Director
The Alaska State Troopers have issued a statement discounting claims that remains found in a lake near the Dalton Highway could belong to Steve Keel of Dover, who has been missing for a year. Keel was hunting in Alaska when he went missing.
Alaska State Troopers said yesterday that the remains that were found are not human.
At the age of 61, Keel went missing on a hunting trip and was last seen Saturday, August 27, 2022. He and a friend were camping in a remote area in northern Alaska. They reportedly were storing the caribou they shot a quarter-mile away and Keel left the campsite to cut some meat and never returned.
His wife, Liz Keel reported this week that a search team had notified her that human remains had been located.
Alaska State Troopers Public Information Officer Austin McDaniel issued a statement to RadioNWTN which states:
“On August 22, 2023, the Alaska State Troopers were notified by a family coordinated search team that they had a cadaver dog indication and sonar scan that they described as a possible deceased person in a shallow tundra lake West of the Dalton Highway.
“The group requested that the Alaska State Troopers send a dive team to the site. The Alaska State Troopers contacted the North Slope Borough, who remain the coordinating agency for the investigation and search for Steven Keel. In coordination with the North Slope Borough, the Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery team was deployed to the site by the Troopers.
“They arrived on September 6th with the assistance of the Alaska National Guard and North Slope Borough aircraft, and searched the lake on both September 6th and 7th. The highly specialized dive team used divers and a cadaver dog to thoroughly search for Keel and were not able to locate any human remains within the lake that the group had identified, or anywhere in the immediate area. The group searched the entire floor of the small lake and examined all vegetation found on the lake floor. Through physical examination of the area by divers, the item that the group believed to be a body from a Sonar image, was determined to not be human remains.
“The Alaska State Troopers continue to stand ready to assist our partners at the North Slope Borough with this search if they request our assistance.”
Since her husband’s disappearance, Liz Keel has coordinated several search parties to find him.