Rural Alaska

Sonar brings searchers closer, but bodies of village couple remain lost under river ice

BETHEL – Underwater sonar equipment provided by a Wisconsin man is helping Western Alaska village residents and Bethel rescue crews zero in on a spot where the bodies of a young couple may be on the bottom of a slough off the Kuskokwim River.

On Tuesday, searchers from Kwethluk and other villages continued to cut into what was deteriorating river ice to look for Sally Stone, 27, and George Evan, 26, of Akiak. While it's typical for volunteers to spend weeks on challenging searches, the scale of the effort about 20 miles upriver from Bethel is unusual, organizers said.

"I've never seen any kind of search like this before, where there are more people coming in every day, 40, 50, 60 people every day, continuously looking," said Sgt. Max Olick, Kwethluk's long-serving village public safety officer and leader of the search just around the bend from his village.

The site's proximity to Bethel and nearby villages drew searchers, though warm chinook winds and rains in recent days heightened the risk for them. On Tuesday, Bethel Search and Rescue, the biggest force, didn't head out but might return later this week if the temperatures drop and the overflow on the river freezes hard again.

A four-wheeler carrying Ralph "Jimmy" Demantle and the couple crashed through thin ice Dec. 12 as they were trying to head home to Akiak after a visit to Bethel. They stopped along the way in Kwethluk at a nearby home and had been drinking, troopers have said.

Searchers followed the tracks and pulled the four-wheeler out of the river Dec. 13 and Demantle's body the next day. But they have struggled to find the other two under the river ice. They've used chainsaws, shovels and augers to cut holes and trenches. They poked into the icy water with gaffs. They dragged bars and ropes equipped with grappling hooks across the bottom. They set up warming tents where donated food is dished up.

And they've looked with Bethel Search and Rescue's underwater camera and, starting Saturday, with loaned sonar equipment from Keith Cormican of Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

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"I really believe it gave us insight into where to look more thoroughly," Mike Riley, Bethel Search and Rescue president, said of the sonar. Searchers had already been cutting trenches into the ice, moving out from where the four-wheeler was recovered. But with thick slush, logs and debris in the water, it's hard to find a person.

"Drag bars are going from one location to the other, randomly choosing different places," Riley said.

Hours of searching with the sonar over the weekend found what volunteers say appears to be a body or bodies near where the four-wheeler went into the water.

"We're just catching a glimpse of it," Cormican said. The underwater camera then was dropped into a hole to look further. Images from it showed someone's Carhartt jacket and the person's hand, said Olick, the search leader. Searchers found a flashlight too, said Perry Barr, a retired state trooper and spokesman for Bethel Search and Rescue. But crews needed to cut a bigger hole to look further and darkness set in.

By Monday, the sonar no longer was detecting a bodylike image. Drag bars may have dislodged it, said Cormican. The best ways to recover bodies are by sending down a diver or by using the arm of remotely operated underwater vehicle, said Cormican. But he didn't ship his ROV or bring his scuba equipment to Alaska. Diving under ice is especially tricky, he said.

Tuesday's search didn't include sonar and didn't recover the lost couple.

The 70-pound side-scan sonar unit looks like a missile and is called a "tow fish." It is connected to a computer and monitor that Cormican operated from a trailer pulled behind a snowmachine and then an Argo all-terrain vehicle. It travels 3 to 5 mph and can detect objects within 100 feet, Cormican said.

Volunteers cut a trench maybe 300 yards long for it. Two trenches 150 feet apart would be ideal, he said. Early on, searchers could have used sonar from a boat in a big hole of open water. The trench already dug veered off the main river channel at one point.

Monday night, Cormican briefed crews in Bethel and showed the images from days of searching on Kuskukuak Slough.

"This is that little bend down at the bottom," he said, as the moving image from the sonar showed on a big screen at Bethel Search and Rescue's headquarters. "We're going to go past that target that keeps showing up."

The images were both murky and revealing. Search volunteer Mark Leary, who has spent his life on the Kuskokwim, said he always has wondered about the river bottom.

"It's like something you'd see from outer space," he said as the sonar images showed on the screen.

"It's a lot to decipher," Cormican said.

Bethel Search and Rescue now wants to acquire the equipment for itself, Riley said.

Cormican is a sales representative for the sonar equipment, as well as the sonar-equipped ROV, and while he praised their effectiveness, he didn't push hard for a sale during his presentation. He said he learned of the Alaska search while Googling another one, emailed Bethel Search and Rescue and within 15 minutes had heard from Leary. He volunteered his time and use of the equipment. Alaska State Troopers covered his transportation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided lodging, according to Bethel Search and Rescue.

Cormican's brother drowned in 1995 while with a crew looking for a man whose canoe had capsized days earlier. Cormican created a nonprofit, Bruce's Legacy, to provide emergency assistance including help with searches for drowning victims.

State Rep. Bob Herron, D-Bethel, said he was curious about the sonar technology and along with his wife went to the site Saturday to see it. Bethel searchers say they intend to seek a state grant. A sonar device and computer would cost about $42,000, Herron said he was told. An ROV system is more expensive, about $130,000, Cormican said.

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"It's a small price to pay to find victims," Herron said.

Searchers say they will keep at it. Volunteers have come from communities up and down the Kuskokwim: Atmautluak -- where Stone, one of those missing, is from -- and other tundra villages including Akiak and Akiachak, Napaskiak and Tuluksak. People from along the Yukon River and farther out on the coast have asked to help too. One woman, Sonya Clark, came from Alberta, Canada.

When a body is found, "the healing starts," Riley of Bethel Search and Rescue said. Like many involved, he has lost family himself, a nephew who went through the ice and wasn't found for six months. "When a person is missing ... you'll still have hope they'll walk through the door."

Bethel Search and Rescue is documenting the search. Tuesday marked the 18th day.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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