Presumed Located AK - Rex Fitzgerald Sowell Last Seen at the Arctic Bar - Ketchikan, Nov 2022

[sunflowermomma]

Ketchikan police, relatives looking for missing man​

By Eric Stone, KRBD - Ketchikan

November 28, 2022

Rex Sowell’s most recent Facebook profile picture, dated May 15, 2022. (Facebook)
Family members and friends are asking Ketchikan residents to keep an eye out for a man who’s been missing for more than a week.
Rex Sowell was last seen in Ketchikan on the night of Nov. 19 at the Arctic Bar. Sowell is a 32-year-old Black man about six feet tall with a full beard. He was wearing dark clothes: a brown T-shirt, a Carhartt coat, black pants, blue boots and a black and gray beanie.
Sowell’s friend Cherish Banks says a group was searching the Rainbird Trail area Wednesday afternoon. She says that’s where his phone last pinged a locator app.
“We started to search last night around 10 p.m., 11 p.m. We walked the Rainbird Trail. It was all family and friends. The police showed up at the end when we were coming out,” she said.
The Ketchikan Police Department is leading the effort to locate Sowell, according to Alaska’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse.
In an email, Ketchikan Police Chief Jeff Walls said KPD searched the Rainbird Trail area, but said a lack of cell towers in the area meant that pings from Sowell’s phone “are not indicative of a true location.”
He said KPD had conducted numerous interviews and reviewed surveillance footage as part of the search. He said the investigation was focused on Ketchikan’s waterfront as of Friday afternoon.
The Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad said in a Facebook post that they were dispatched Friday to search Ketchikan’s cruise ship berths to search for a missing person, but said the effort was unsuccessful.
He said the department is keeping Sowell’s family updated on the search.
Ketchikan police ask anyone with information about Sowell to contact them at (907) 225-6631.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact the author at [email protected] or 907-225-9655

 

[sunflowermomma]

The Rainbird trail he was hiking - note that it is down and back, not a loop. Easy to miss that if you are not an experienced hiker but not sure of his level of experience. It was raining on that day and a reviewer says it's more of a rock scramble that is dangerous when rainy.

 

[YaYa_521]

City of Ketchikan Police Department
29 Nov 2022

Regarding missing person Rex Sowell. During the course of our investigation we located video surveillance, which shows Mr. Sowell falling into the water near berth 3. Once this was discovered, Ketchikan volunteer rescue squad was notified, who along with KPD and the Harbor Master made attempts to locate Mr. Sowell. Unfortunately, due to the time in the water, the believed purpose of the search was to recover Mr. Sowell’s body. Mr. Sowell’s mother has been kept updated throughout the investigation and out of respect to the family we have given her time to return home and speak with relatives before making any announcement on our findings.

 

[dub]

Oh man. Usually it’s baffling to me when people randomly fall into bodies of water, but Ketchikan is maybe the most dangerous place I’ve ever been in terms of that possibility.

I’ve been to the arctic bar, and as far as I can tell berth 3 is directly next to it. If you go into the water in that area after dark, pretty much zero chance you find your way out.

 

[YaYa_521]

Missing Person / NamUs #MP97708

View NamUs missing person case MP97708 for Rex Fitzgerald Sowell missing from Ketchikan, Alaska. Date of last contact: Nov 19, 2022. NCMEC case number: --.

namus.nij.ojp.gov

Circumstances of Disappearance
Rex was last seen at the Arctic Bar in Ketchikan on 11/19/2022. Surveillance video shows him running towards the ramp at Berth 3 and falling into the water.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Bumping for Rex, now missing nearly three months...

 

[sunflowermomma]

I was just thinking about Rex yesterday because Kansas City is opening a two-story bar on an old train trestle and the renderings show the railing going no higher than a grown man's waist. It looks like many tragedies like this waiting to happen, I can't believe it's been approved.

 

[iulia]

His NamUs page has been removed.

I think he was identified as UP115299 which was also removed in the past 24 hrs.

Case Number UP115299
ME/C Case 2023-01629
DBF 08/24/2023
Age From --
Age To --
City Ketchikan
County Ketchikan Gateway
State Alaska
Biological Sex Unsure
Race/Ethnicity Other
Date created 01/30/2024

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP115299

View NamUs unclaimed person case UCP115299 for -- -- missing from Ketchikan, Alaska. Date body found: Aug 24, 2023. NCMEC case number: --.

namus.nij.ojp.gov