Police say two people have died in separate boating accidents in southwest Alaska

Updated: 20 Seconds before Published: 2 Hours ago

A missing 29-year-old woman from Dillingham and a 57-year-old man from Kalskag were found dead after separate boating accidents in southwest Alaska, Alaska State Troopers said Tuesday.

On Saturday morning, an aerial search party found the body of Rachelle Johnson along the tide line near Clark’s Point south of Dillingham, police said.

Johnson and his friend Carl Nunn left Dillingham on May 13 after Johnson borrowed a boat to go fishing in Ekuk, about 17 miles south, police spokesman Austin McDaniel said. They were reported missing on May 15 after the boat was found upside down on the shore of Ekuk Beach, cops said.

Nunn, 36, also from Dillingham, was still missing as of Tuesday.

The other incident occurred Monday, when 57-year-old Michael Evan of Kalskag was found dead in the Kuskokwim River, troopers said. Evan and a woman, whose identity is not known, were traveling on the Kuskokwim from Aniak to Kalskag on Monday morning, they said.

The 16-foot aluminum boat capsized about five miles upriver from Kalskag, McDaniel said. It’s not clear what caused the boat to capsize, he said. Kalskag is about 25 miles west of Aniak.

A local search and rescue team helped the woman get to shore, troopers said. A helicopter from Bethel and the Kalskag team continued to search for Evan in the water and on land, they said. He was found dead near the boat by the Kalskag team at about 2:15 p.m., McDaniel said.

Both Evan and the woman were wearing flotation devices when the boat capsized, he said.