Body believed to be missing teen

PALMER — Police announced Thursday that they believe they’ve found the body of a teen missing since late last month.

Trenton Tunohun, 17, of Palmer, ran from police after they arrived to investigate a disturbance near the Matanuska River July 27.

Everyone else in his party had been accounted for by the next day. But Tunohun stayed missing, sparking a two-day search effort.

At 6:26 p.m. on Wednesday, Palmer police say, they received word that a body had been found in the river about a mile south of the Matanuska River Bridge.

Alaska State Troopers responded first but, knowing Palmer police were looking for Tunohun, summoned Palmer’s Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney.

“A private citizen was riding his ATV along the banks of the Matanuska River, he had gotten on the Mat River trail around the Riverbend Estates off Outer Springer (Loop),” said the Palmer Public Safety Director Jon Owen. “He had ridden northbound when he observed what appeared to be a body in the river.”

Owen said troopers and Palmer police parked in the subdivision and drove ATVs to the river. Troopers towed a small boat in case they’d need it.

It turned out the body was partially on a gravel bar close enough to the river’s west bank, Owen said, that officers could drive their ATVs out to it.

“From where they retrieved the body they could look up and see the Mat River Bridge, it was 1.5 miles away,” he said.

Owen said the clothing on the body matched the description of what Tunohun was wearing when he went missing.

“The clothing exactly matched down to the logo on the shirt that he was last seen wearing,” Owen said.

Still, he said, a final official identification will have to come from the state Medical Examiner who was conducting an autopsy as Owen spoke Thursday afternoon.

“We anticipate identification through dental records,” Owen said.

Turney said that if the body turns out to be Tunohun — which he has no reason to believe that won’t be the case— that it will have been good to resolve the case.

“All the people who were involved in searching for Trenton wanted to give the family some sort of answer and we’re glad to have been able to do that,” he said.

After Tunohun went missing, rumors circled around Palmer about possible foul play — maybe even murder — in Tunohun’s disappearance. Police say none of those rumors held up to scrutiny.

“I’ll let the ME’s office make the final determination as far as cause and manner (of death) but my opinion has not changed. If anything, it’s just reaffirmed that there was no foul play in his disappearance,” Turney said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.