Community members are still searching for 62-year-old Happy Valley resident David Meyer, who went missing last week while kayaking.
Meyer, an experienced fisherman and hunter, departed from the shore of Happy Valley in a motorized Mokai kayak at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11. The kayak was found later Wednesday night, around 11 p.m., with no sign of Meyer.
“We do recognize that this is a recovery search at this point,” Meyer’s daughter, Chantrelle, said Monday.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said that the USCG command center in Anchorage received notification last Wednesday from Alaska State Troopers dispatch in Soldotna “of a kayaker that was supposed to be back on shore around 1800 (hours) near Happy Valley Falls, but was instead drifting further out.”
A friend of Meyer’s, watching from the shore, saw the kayak drifting farther away and contacted the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Kodiak, which began conducting search patterns when they arrived on the scene. A “good Samaritan” also launched their vessel from the shore and, arriving on scene, found the kayak “overturned with no one in the area,” officials said Monday. The good Samaritan recovered the kayak, motor, paddle and cushion and also began searching for Meyer.
Wildlife officers and Alaska State Troopers also participated in the initial search, a USCG official said.
On Thursday afternoon at about 3:47 p.m., USCG received a report that the Jayhawk crew discovered gray waders, matching the description of those reportedly worn by Meyer when he disappeared, within the designated search area. The crew found no further sign of Meyer while conducting further searches in the area.
The Coast Guard suspended their active search on Thursday. Multiple volunteers from the community and the Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team continued searching Friday and Saturday, and community volunteers have continued assisting the family with the search after the weekend. On Monday, Chantrelle was searching the beach at Happy Valley with others, and said that other volunteers have searched as far north as Kasilof and south to Homer.
Chantrelle Meyer expressed gratitude for the work that the Coast Guard, Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team, and community have done in looking for her father.
“I cannot tell you how grateful our family is for this community coming together,” she said. “There has been an outpouring of love and support from this community.
“Until his body is recovered, we want to keep this (search) alive. We cannot stop.”
Anyone with information or tips that could help with the search should contact the Coast Guard at 907-428-4100.
This is a developing story.
