AK AK - Steve Keel, 61, missing from hunting trip, from TN - Aug 27, 2022

[WingsOverTX]

Hypothetically, what medical events rise to the top of your list as being most likely? TIA

Something triggered by or complicated by exhaustion. Vertigo? Stroke? Hypothermia?

We don't know if he was diabetic or had any treatable condition that may have gotten more serious a week into a very strenuous hunt.

I lean away from just getting lost but we have so little info from which to build reasonable conjecture, who knows?

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Something triggered by or complicated by exhaustion. Vertigo? Stroke? Hypothermia?

We don't know if he was diabetic or had any treatable condition that may have gotten more serious a week into a very strenuous hunt.

I lean away from just getting lost but we have so little info from which to build reasonable conjecture, who knows?

Thank you for your reply. Those reasons sound plausible enough.

I guess there could also be allergies; although, I'd think he'd carry an epi or two.

Why is it that they didn't go together to cut off a slab of meat? I'm a big fan of the buddy system.

 

[RickshawFan]

Thank you for your reply. Those reasons sound plausible enough.

I guess there could also be allergies; although, I'd think he'd carry an epi or two.

Why is it that they didn't go together to cut off a slab of meat? I'm a big fan of the buddy system.

I believe the plan was to pick up ALL the meat and bring it to camp. SK had dropped it off and marked it with a pole because he couldn’t manage it the day before when returning from the hunt.
This makes it all the stranger that they didn’t both go. Actually, it’s odd that they didn’t rest a bit and go back for it the day before.

 

[j_in_c]

Hypothetically, what medical events rise to the top of your list as being most likely? TIA

Even a rolled ankle that slows you down but doesn't "feel" like an emergency or a reason to ask your camping buddy for help can quickly grow into a much bigger problem in the backcountry.

Unfortunately people are missed on searches (especially once non-responsive) all the time. SAR teams train to improve, but it is not a perfect science.

 

[shefner]

I believe the plan was to pick up ALL the meat and bring it to camp. SK had dropped it off and marked it with a pole because he couldn’t manage it the day before when returning from the hunt.
This makes it all the stranger that they didn’t both go. Actually, it’s odd that they didn’t rest a bit and go back for it the day before.

This is odd to me, too. If my friend had trouble yesterday, why would I let him take the walk back all alone today?

 

[neesaki]

This is odd to me, too. If my friend had trouble yesterday, why would I let him take the walk back all alone today?

I could say what I think about this friend , but I’d better not!

 

[shefner]

I could say what I think about this friend , but I’d better not!

Yes. And in all fairness to both Steve and his friend, we don't know too much about their personalities or how they interacted within their friendship.
Sometimes people are especially independent. Perhaps one or the other was in disagreement about how a certain task was to be conducted. We just don't know the dynamics of this incident.

 

[RickshawFan]

This is odd to me, too. If my friend had trouble yesterday, why would I let him take the walk back all alone today?

I think, even if my friend declined, I would be out there with the binoculars watching him go to the pole point and coming back. There were reasons to be concerned.

 

[shefner]

I think, even if my friend declined, I would be out there with the binoculars watching him go to the pole point and coming back. There were reasons to be concerned.

Absolutely.

Have we heard anything directly from the friend?

 

[LauraAnne]

Something triggered by or complicated by exhaustion. Vertigo? Stroke? Hypothermia?

We don't know if he was diabetic or had any treatable condition that may have gotten more serious a week into a very strenuous hunt.

I lean away from just getting lost but we have so little info from which to build reasonable conjecture, who knows?

The thing is, in all these scenarios, he'd still be there, in theory very close to where he started from. It doesn't seem he's there.

 

[WingsOverTX]

The thing is, in all these scenarios, he'd still be there, in theory very close to where he started from. It doesn't seem he's there.

If you feel he left the confines of the areas searched, where would he be, knowing his feet are his main source of transportation?

Look at another very recent Alaska missing person case for evidence that people can & do disappear in that vast landscape, leaving mystery in their wake.

AK - AK - Mary Dawn Wilson, 69 - 2-YO Grandchild Found Locked in Abandoned Car, Healy, 12 July 2022

HEALY, Alaska (KTUU) – A 2-year-old boy was found locked in an abandoned car outside of Healy Thursday morning, according to a dispatch from the Alaska State Police. At 1:31 a.m. Thursday, deputies received a report of an abandoned car approximately 6.8 miles up Stampede Trail with a child...

www.websleuths.com

If SK is not lost on the tundra, what are the reasonable scenarios to explain his disappearance?

 

[LauraAnne]

If you feel he left the confines of the areas searched, where would he be, knowing his feet are his main source of transportation?

Look at another very recent Alaska missing person case for evidence that people can & do disappear in that vast landscape, leaving mystery in their wake.

AK - AK - Mary Dawn Wilson, 69 - 2-YO Grandchild Found Locked in Abandoned Car, Healy, 12 July 2022

HEALY, Alaska (KTUU) – A 2-year-old boy was found locked in an abandoned car outside of Healy Thursday morning, according to a dispatch from the Alaska State Police. At 1:31 a.m. Thursday, deputies received a report of an abandoned car approximately 6.8 miles up Stampede Trail with a child...

www.websleuths.com

If SK is not lost on the tundra, what are the reasonable scenarios to explain his disappearance?

I don't know where he would be; except, he's not there in the path between his camp and the pack with his caribou meat. He never made it there. So, that rules that out. He wasn't headed in the correct direction, and then succumbed to some health issue or accidental injury issue.

So that leaves me to wonder, if instead of thinking how he could have been weakened, maybe he had a strength no one is giving him credit for mustering, and he wandered FAR away from the search area?

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Upthread folks have mentioned the boggy nature of [at least some of] the ground in that area.

Is it actually possible that a person could slip down under the apparent surface and not be visible?

And if so, are there search tools that will help find what's under the bog? Some sort of "bog-penetrating radar?"

 

[RickshawFan]

I don't know where he would be; except, he's not there in the path between his camp and the pack with his caribou meat. He never made it there. So, that rules that out. He wasn't headed in the correct direction, and then succumbed to some health issue or accidental injury issue.

So that leaves me to wonder, if instead of thinking how he could have been weakened, maybe he had a strength no one is giving him credit for mustering, and he wandered FAR away from the search area?

There was no path between camp and the meat cache. There wasn't even a direct route (there was a swamp on the way.) That's the problem. It was a bushwhack.

It's possible SK made it further than people would anticipate, but IMO he evidently wasn't in good shape the day before, he had no supplies on him, his pants looked to be cotton (so they'd soak up water; baggy, too), panic and exertion would have made him super sweaty, exponential calorie depletion... And very high odds of hypothermia in that environment.

SK may have thought the meat would be his breakfast, in which case, did he even eat breakfast?

 

[Black Diamond]

If SK is not lost on the tundra, what are the reasonable scenarios to explain his disappearance?

I think the probabilities are something like this
- SK dead somewhere on the tundra 96%
- SK still alive on the tundra less than 1%
- SK dead and no longer on the tundra 2%. (Example Abducted and taken to another location to be killed)
- SK still alive but no longer on the tundra 1%. (Example: he could have made it to the haul road and been picked up by someone and for whatever reason not made the general public aware. One example of many would be SK voluntarily wanting to hitch a ride with a trucker and go disappear on his own accord.)

 

[RickshawFan]

Upthread folks have mentioned the boggy nature of [at least some of] the ground in that area.

Is it actually possible that a person could slip down under the apparent surface and not be visible?

And if so, are there search tools that will help find what's under the bog? Some sort of "bog-penetrating radar?"

If you look at the CS videos on FB, CS actually fell into a bog. He explains the result.

There might be search tools that can find stuff in a bog (maybe military? science? archaeology?), but they would have to be airborne. Those resources are not available, practically speaking.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

I don't know where he would be; except, he's not there in the path between his camp and the pack with his caribou meat. He never made it there. So, that rules that out. He wasn't headed in the correct direction, and then succumbed to some health issue or accidental injury issue.

So that leaves me to wonder, if instead of thinking how he could have been weakened, maybe he had a strength no one is giving him credit for mustering, and he wandered FAR away from the search area?

If I were lost and couldn’t find my way, I think I would try to walk to the haul road. It was said that trucks were visible and you could also here road noises that sound like a helicopter.

If he did that and didn’t make it to the road, I think it would be difficult to find him. There would be know way to know the path he took from his lost position.

 

[neesaki]

There was no path between camp and the meat cache. There wasn't even a direct route (there was a swamp on the way.) That's the problem. It was a bushwhack.

It's possible SK made it further than people would anticipate, but IMO he evidently wasn't in good shape the day before, he had no supplies on him, his pants looked to be cotton (so they'd soak up water; baggy, too), panic and exertion would have made him super sweaty, exponential calorie depletion... And very high odds of hypothermia in that environment.

SK may have thought the meat would be his breakfast, in which case, did he even eat breakfast?

The other thing, they said he left his camp around 10:30 11:00 a.m.
Does anyone besides me think that seems late in the day, considering the task at hand ? Maybe he was physically unwell and didnt feel up to it at all.

 

[LauraAnne]

There was no path between camp and the meat cache. There wasn't even a direct route (there was a swamp on the way.) That's the problem. It was a bushwhack.

It's possible SK made it further than people would anticipate, but IMO he evidently wasn't in good shape the day before, he had no supplies on him, his pants looked to be cotton (so they'd soak up water; baggy, too), panic and exertion would have made him super sweaty, exponential calorie depletion... And very high odds of hypothermia in that environment.

SK may have thought the meat would be his breakfast, in which case, did he even eat breakfast?

By "path" I meant "route". So while there wasn't an established trodden footpath, there was clearly a from A to B pathway, that he intended to find by looking toward the direction of one hiking stick, and using that as a directional to point to where the other hiking stick, and caribou pack, would be.

The thought that he headed in the right direction initially - from the camp toward the one hiking stick that was close to camp, and then somehow missed the mark a little getting to the caribou pack, maybe overshot it a little, and then succumbed to the elements or an acute health issue, and perished there and is still there, I don't believe is going to be the outcome.

I think he either left there for some reason, don't know why, or he went into a fugue state and kept walking beyond the bounds of where anyone can even imagine he would travelled on foot.

 

[Hexe]

There was no path between camp and the meat cache. There wasn't even a direct route (there was a swamp on the way.) That's the problem. It was a bushwhack.

It's possible SK made it further than people would anticipate, but IMO he evidently wasn't in good shape the day before, he had no supplies on him, his pants looked to be cotton (so they'd soak up water; baggy, too), panic and exertion would have made him super sweaty, exponential calorie depletion... And very high odds of hypothermia in that environment.

SK may have thought the meat would be his breakfast, in which case, did he even eat breakfast?

I've seen only a morning coffee mentioned. In this case, if Steve went to retrieve the meat without having any food before, he might have a sudden drop of the sugar levels in his blood. Walking through the soggy, uneven terrain burns a lot of calories and hypoglycemia can bring disorientation and confusion, which is a very bad thing when you are in a middle of a very vast and very inhospitable nothing.