Efforts to locate a woman who authorities believe was swept under the ice of the North Fork of Eagle River resumed Sunday with assistance from a dive team.
Shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday, the Anchorage Police Department contacted Alaska State Troopers about ongoing search and rescue efforts for a woman missing near the North Fork Eagle River Trail, troopers said in an online report. The woman and a man were walking their dogs along the trail when one of the dogs entered the river’s open water, troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said Sunday.
“The adult female and the adult male entered the water and began searching for the dog,” McDaniel said. “At some point, the adult female went under the water and did not resurface.”
Anchorage’s police and fire departments searched for the woman in the immediate vicinity and found no signs of her, troopers said. The woman wasn’t in the area of open water, which the fire department searched thoroughly Saturday, according to McDaniel.
“It’s believed that she was swept underneath the ice downriver,” McDaniel said. Much of the river in the area where the woman disappeared has frozen over, he said.
A Department of Public Safety helicopter conducted an air search and an Alaska Wildlife Trooper responded to the area to help with a ground search, according to troopers, who also activated the Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team.
The dive search team responded to the area before darkness fell and assessed the search site, it said on social media. Because of the risk posed by “working in the dark on thin ice over moving water,” the team said it decided to deploy Sunday morning to begin their recovery mission once there was a sufficient amount of daylight to work safely.
We are deploying in the morning (24 Dec.) to perform the recovery mission in Eagle River. Today before it became dark...
Posted by Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team on Saturday, December 23, 2023
McDaniel said the dive search team and Alaska Wildlife Troopers “are going to be searching a couple areas of interest underneath the ice” once daylight hits the river valley. They planned to cut into the ice and deploy sonar or remote-operated vehicles beneath the surface as conditions allow, he said.
Additional information about the status of the search wasn’t immediately available Sunday night.
The man wasn’t injured in the incident, according to troopers. McDaniel said the dog the couple was searching for wasn’t recovered.