Troopers mum on body found in area lake

BIG LAKE — Neighbors believe the body found floating in Stephan Lake belongs to a man who sparked a manhunt in the area after firing rounds at a traffic stop. But Alaska State Troopers aren’t yet confirming or denying that information.

“We’re waiting to get positive identification before we can release more information,” AST spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said early Friday afternoon.

She said troopers are waiting on a report from the state Medical Examiner’s Office. By late afternoon Friday, she said they had received word from the medical examiner but were still not releasing information.

The body was found Wednesday floating face-up in the lake. Jim Faiks lives on the lake and found the body. He said the man matched the description of a person who prompted a manhunt June 25 after he stepped out of a vehicle troopers were stopping and fired rounds from a pistol before taking off on foot.

“Everybody here was just really relieved,” Faiks said of the reaction to finding the body. “We all believe that this is the guy, and therefore, he’s not lurking around in the woods and won’t be sneaking up on us somehow.”

Troopers, though, are not confirming their conjecture.

Still, the coincidences seem to indicate that the deceased and the fugitive may be the same man. On June 25, the same day as the manhunt, a neighbor of Faiks called troopers to report a distressed swimmer in the lake.

Faiks said he was on the water within minutes looking for the guy, but didn’t find him. Troopers showed up as well and searched an island in the lake. Faiks said he kept his distance in his boat, but kept an eye on the island in case he spotted something and could help troopers.

The search turned up nothing, neither did a subsequent search by the Mat-Su Borough Dive Rescue Team on the following day.

Faiks said that the same day the man disappeared in the lake a snowshoe went missing from his house where he’d hung them as decoration.

He said he believes that the man running from troopers tried to use the snowshoe to ferry his clothes and gun across the lake while he swam. The body Faiks found was only wearing underwear, he said.

Faiks found the snowshoe in the water a few days after the man went missing.

“His clothes sank with the gun and then he sank and my snowshoe drifted to shore and then, eventually, he did too,” Faiks said.

He said the water has been relatively warm lately, 72 degrees or so.

“We’ve been swimming in it,” Faiks said. “Nobody wanted to swim last week with somebody in the lake.”

The water temperatures consistent with cold water drowning deaths begin around 70 degrees, according to the United States Search and Rescue Task Force.

As such, Faiks said it seems likely that cold water contributed to the man’s death. Maybe he was tired from his run from the law or had lost some blood from hiding in mosquito-swarmed bushes, he said.

Whatever happened, Faiks said, he’s glad it’s over. The area, halfway down Burma Road, isn’t exactly the type of place where fugitives are running through the neighborhood on a regular basis.

“We’re all very relieved that the drama is over,” Faiks said.

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