Arkansas Musician And Friend Go Missing On Oklahoma Lake After Posting Eerie Tweet
A musician from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his friend are missing after they went out duck hunting on a lake in Oklahoma. Craig Strickland and Chase Morland went out hunting on Sunday, and their boat was found capsized early on Monday morning. A search took place but then had to be suspended late into the night before resuming hours later.
KFSM reported that Strickland, of the band Backroad Anthem, and his friend left on Sunday to go duck hunting on Kaw Lake. Family members started becoming concerned when they hadn’t heard from either man for 24 hours.
In an odd twist, Morland was on Twitter when the two set out on their hunting trip and made an off-handed joke about not returning.
“In case we don’t come back, Craig Strickland and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma.”
Obviously, that tweet was sent out before the two hunters experienced any problems. It had originally been posted to Morland’s Facebook page around 9:30 p.m. EST on Saturday night.
UPDATE – 5:30 p.m. EST: The body of Chase Morland has been found, but authorities are still searching for Craig Strickland.
The official Facebook page for the band Backroad Anthem had a status update on Monday morning that asked for prayers and detailed the situation.
“As some of you may know at this point yesterday early morning about 2 am Craig Strickland & his good friend Chase Morland headed out to go duck hunting. We received a text last night from Randy Strickland asking us band members to pray for Craig and Chase, because they had not made any kind of contact with families in 24 hours. We do know they issued a search party which ended last night about 2 am, and that they were resuming the search party this morning at 6:30 am. We are asking all fans to please pray for Craig & Chase to be found safe and sound. Please also pray for Craigs family, his wife, and for us band members. We love you guys and we appreciate your ever loving support for our dream. ?#?PowerInPrayer?
We do not know much more information at this point. So we do ask for your respect in this matter until we learn any further details.”
Around 3:45 p.m. EST on Monday afternoon, the band posted another message saying that Randy Strickland, Craig’s father, was still asking for prayers. As of that time, neither of the hunters had been found during the police search.
Strickland and Morland had set out on Kaw Lake in Kay County, which is north of Oklahoma City. The freezing temperatures and darkness had made it difficult for authorities to send out a search and rescue boat.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) stated that on Monday morning, the dock had to be sanded before they could even get to the boats to resume the search.
Numerous friends and family have made posts on Chase Morland’s Facebook page telling him to “Rest in Peace,” and that they know how great a loss this is to his family. There has been no confirmation that either one of the hunters is dead, but it is known that they have not yet been found.
OHP has said that they are focusing their search on the lake where the capsized boat was found empty.
Craig Strickland of the band Backroad Anthem and his friend Chase Morland simply went out hunting on a lake in Oklahoma and now are nowhere to be seen. The missing hunters have a search party looking for them, and everyone is hoping they are located soon.
[Image via Twitter]
