The body of the man pulled from the open hole near Tuluksak has been identified as Joseph Hale of Hooper Bay. Hale and another man, Peter Sallaffie, drove their snowmachines into an unmarked open hole in the Kuskokwim River ice near Tuluksak on New Year's Day.
Volunteers from Tuluksak and nearby communities recovered Hale’s body that same weekend. They have returned to the open hole every day since, looking for Sallaffie's body.