At 7:04 pm on Saturday, Alaska State Troopers received a report of a missing canoer who along with his companions had experienced a capsizing on Finger Lake in Wasilla.

Troopers, EMS, and the Mat-Su Borough Water Rescue Team responded to the scene to assist in the search for the missing canoer identified as 23-year-old Devon Betker

The investigation at the scene found that the three men were in a canoe and paddling to an island on the popular lake in northeast Wasilla on Saturday evening when they experienced a turnover in about 20 feet of water.

Two of the three were able to hang on to the overturned canoe, but Betker slipped below the surface and did not re-emerge. the two survivors held on to their watercraft until another boat spotted them and responded to pick them up.

Over an hour passed before the searchers located Betker’s remains and recovered them at 8:30 pm. Betker’s body was turned over to the State Medical Examiner’s office.

Troopers report that Betker’s next of kin was at the scene.

  Alaska, betker, canoe, devon, drowning, finger lake, wasilla