79-year-old missing after setting out alone to skate on frozen Alaska lake, police say
A 79-year-old man is missing after going ice skating on a frozen Alaska lake, officials said.
Thomas McGuire, of Haines, went skating by himself on the nearby Chilkoot Lake on Feb. 6, Alaska State Troopers said in a news release the next day.
McGuire’s vehicle was found in a parking lot close to the lake, and rescuers from the Haines Volunteer Fire Department and Alaska State Parks began searching for him after he didn’t return home, troopers said.
However, the ice was unstable and the search had to be suspended, troopers said.
Rescuers advanced more than a mile onto the lake in the northern part of Alaska’s panhandle, KHNS reported.
But, “the ice was cracking, and water was bubbling up beneath my feet. So we turned back. At that point, with darkness coming in and unsafe ice conditions, we were unable to locate the victim,” a rescuer told the outlet, which described McGuire as a local author.
Haines is about a 90-mile drive northwest from Juneau.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 2:20 PM with the headline "79-year-old missing after setting out alone to skate on frozen Alaska lake, police say."
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