Alaska News

Man who disappeared while ice fishing found dead in Kenai Peninsula lake

A Sterling man's body was pulled from Hidden Lake on Wednesday after he drove a van onto the lake ice and disappeared, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The man, identified as 45-year-old David Riss, was reported missing around 7:20 a.m. Wednesday. Riss had set out on Hidden Lake on Tuesday afternoon to go ice fishing along with Arthur Fena, 47, and Herbert Myddelton, 44, troopers reported in an online dispatch.

The group drove onto the lake in a Dodge Caravan. Around 6 p.m. Riss left in the van to go ice fishing at another location on the lake. By nightfall, he hadn't returned, troopers wrote.

Fena and Myddelton went to find him. While walking on the lake, both fell through the ice. They pulled themselves out of the water, went back to their camp and built a fire, troopers wrote.

By Wednesday morning, their cellphone had dried out after it had fallen into the water. They called the Soldotna Public Safety Communication Center and reported Riss as missing, Beth Ipsen, troopers spokeswoman, said in an email.

An officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded to the area, and at 10:20 a.m. found Riss' body floating in open water near the northwest side of the lake. The van was not found, troopers wrote.

Riss' body was sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy, troopers wrote.

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Hidden Lake is in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. On Wednesday, the refuge closed the lake to vehicle traffic, posting signs and setting up barricades, said Steve Miller, deputy manager of the refuge.

Miller said the refuge typically does not open or close the lake, but it shut off access in light of Riss' death. Miller estimated the ice thickness on most of Hidden Lake at between 10 and 12 inches, though there were areas of open water.

"Obviously this year has been a very unusual winter and has led to very unusual conditions," he said.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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