DOVER, Tenn. (WTVF) — The wife of a missing hunter from Tennessee is exhausting all resources because Steve Keel has still not been found, one month after his disappearance.
Steve is a Marine veteran and avid outdoorsman. He went to Northern Alaska to hunt Caribou at the end of August. His hunting buddy said he went to check on their stored meat but never returned.
"Some of the truck drivers have been in contact with us, and they have alerted everyone that they know to keep an eye out for him — check hospitals, check clinics whatever — just in case something happened and we didn’t know about it," Liz Keel said.
Steve's sons went out to search for him, as did another group from Dover, but the efforts turned up nothing.
The terrain has created challenges during the search efforts.
"They described it as lots of wet or damp moss that would sink, and it has water underneath it. And then between all of that there’s, like, tufts of grass that are very difficult — you can’t walk on those because you’ll twist your ankle," said Liz.
And with worsening weather, she hopes to ramp up search efforts soon. She wants dogs to scour the area, and ponds to be checked.
"We’re going to go forward; we’re going to keep going until we get our answers, until we get Steve home," Liz said.
There's now a Facebook group with thousands of followers working to solve the mystery.
"And also, keep up with whatever ideas you have or resources that you may have thought of, or friends of friends. Put them in touch with me; I’ll talk to anyone," said Liz.
Liz is raising money through F&M bank as well as posting a Go Fund Me for search efforts. Next, she's working to get together a reward for information that leads to Steve's return.
His disappearance is being investigated by The North Slope Borough.
