"People want to know how they can help. We need more people on the ground looking," said Brooke Duenke, center, Aaron Duenke's wife while at a make-shift command center at the Paddle Stop Brewery in New Haven on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. Brooke Duenke was coordinating volunteer search efforts to find her missing husband with her husband's brother Curtis Duenke, right, and his wife, Lauren Duenke.
WASHINGTON, Mo. — A man remained missing Thursday after he disappeared earlier this week while floating on chunks of ice in the Missouri River east of Washington, Missouri.
Aaron Duenke, 34, of Washington, was last heard from at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, his brother Curtis Duenke told the Post-Dispatch.
A had been shared over 1,700 times on Facebook, and an Facebook page was established to coordinate search efforts.
Aaron Duenke shot this selfie of him riding on a piece of ice floating down the Missouri River near Washington, Mo., and sent it to friends shortly before he went missing.
Washington police Lt. Steve Sitzes said his department received a call Tuesday that Duenke was in the area paddling down the river on a chunk of ice. Officers found him on the water and spoke with him.
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Sitzes said Duenke told police he was fine and that he had done this before. The lieutenant said floating on ice in the river is not illegal, so police did not stop him.
“I have been here 30 years and have not seen this activity,†Sitzes said. “Now I did some Googling and I did find some groups out there that do this type of thing, but it’s not well known and it’s extremely dangerous — those icebergs can break apart when they hit one another or a wing dam.â€
Duenke’s friend said they think he started his journey in Dundee, a few miles northeast of Washington, and planned to stop at Hinckley Bend, in St. Johns Township between Washington and Labadie.
“Later that evening is when people said he didn’t arrive at his destination,†Sitzes said, noting the man’s last known location based on cellphone data was “well outside†the department’s jurisdiction.
On Thursday, people met up at Paddle Stop Brewery in New Haven to coordinate search efforts, and an was made to track where people had searched for Duenke. Markers indicated people had gone as far east as St. Charles to search for the man.
“People want to know how they can help. We need more people on the ground looking,†said his wife, Brooke Duenke.
Curtis Duenke said his family on Thursday was still hopeful he would be found alive.
“I actually believe he’s still out there,†he said.
People walked along the north bank of the river, Curtis Duenke said, and around 2 p.m. Missouri State Highway Patrol flew a helicopter in the area to aid the effort. He said he hoped to find drones to help them search the south bank of the river, which is not easily accessible on foot.
Duenke’s paddling equipment had not been found Thursday, Curtis Duenke said.
Paddle Stop Brewery in New Haven posted to its Facebook page about Duenke, saying he had worked for the company in various capacities, “from flipping burgers to building boats,†for several years.
The post said he was a carpenter and “fell in love with big river paddle boarding, and the culture behind big river recreation†and had paddled thousands of miles.
Duenke is the second person to go missing in that area of the Missouri River in recent months.
Kenny Loudermilk, 35, went missing Oct. 26 when he was paragliding and landed in the Missouri River, Sitzes said.
Washington police took the initial report on Loudermilk’s disappearance, but Sitzes said the Missouri State Highway Patrol Water Patrol Division is in charge of periodic search efforts for the man’s body.
Loudermilk was from O’Fallon, Missouri.
Post-Dispatch photographer Laurie Skrivan contributed to this report.
A selection of photos from 2022 by Laurie Skrivan, who has covered ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ from nearly every angle as a Post-Dispatch staff photographer since 1998. She won the 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism award domestic photography and was a member of the 2015 Breaking News Photography Prize awarded to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Post-Dispatch photography staff.
A man standing in all black with a pole in his hand, as he floated down the Missouri River on a cube of ice is now missing. His family spoke out about him been missing about a hour ago! The video was shot about three hour ago as on lookers seen the man floating from on ice at a steady speed. ðŸ™ðŸ½ðŸ™ðŸ½ Currently the coast guard and many other agencies are searching the Missouri River.
Dana Rieck
Courts Reporter
