It has been a sad year so far in Alaska's largest city, with two missing persons cases uniting the community then ending in tragedy. On Thursday, police confirmed that a body found in Eagle River was that of 24-year-old Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson airman Clinton Reeves, missing since late April.
Police department spokesman Dave Parker said that the identity of the body, found in a high neighborhood above Skyline Road in Eagle River on Tuesday night, was confirmed Wednesday to be Reeves. The state medical examiner determined that the cause of death was homicide, though Parker declined to go into further details.
Police said on Tuesday, prior to the discovery of Reeves's body, that they suspected he had fallen victim to foul play. On Wednesday, another airman, James Thomas, was charged with six counts of evidence tampering in relation to the disappearance of Reeves. Charging documents indicated that a "violent incident" may have taken place at Thomas' home.
Neither Thomas nor anyone else has been charged in Reeves's death.
Lt. Col. Patricia Csank of the 673rd Logistics Readiness Squadron -- the squadron to which Reeves was assigned -- said that she wasn't sure what Thomas and Reeves's relationship was, but did say that they were not part of the same unit.
Parker said that the investigation was continuing, and that investigators would leave no stone unturned in bring the "person or persons" responsible for Reeves's murder to justice.
Reeves was last seen on April 19, and last heard from April 22. He was reported missing when he failed to report for duty on April 23, the same day his abandoned rental car was found on a street in Anchorage's Mountain View neighborhood.
Csank and Robert Evans, JBER and 673d Air Base Wing Commander, praised Reeves as an excellent airman. They said that Reeves, a fuel technician, was one of the men selected to assist in fueling Air Force One when President Barack Obama made a brief stop at JBER on his way to Asia.
"That's a huge responsibility, and that's something that we really hand-select for," Csank said. "That's really a tight-knit group of people that we go out to, only about five to eight of them that we select."
"He was a valued member of our team, as all of our airmen are. It's not about our airplanes, or weaponry, it is about our people," Evans said. He thanks the Anchorage community for its assistance in the search for Reeves, calling it "the most supportive community I've ever served in."
He noted that members of the military and Air Force are accustomed to mourning fallen comrades, though the circumstances behind Reeves's death were certainly unusual.
Reeves's mother and father had flown to Alaska to assist in the search and were notified Wednesday night that the body discovered in Eagle River was that of their son. James Koenig, whose daughter Samantha also went missing in early February and whose body was discovered months later in a lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, was lending his help in the search for airman Reeves.
A private memorial service for Reeves is scheduled for Monday and will take place on base.
Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com