A teenager was found dead outside the village of Napakiak on Jan. 8. Troopers suspect that Arthur Dull, age 18, died of exposure.
Just before 11 p.m. that night, Alaska State Troopers received a report that Dull had gone missing. Local searchers in Napakiak assembled a search party and began looking for the missing teen, according to an online trooper dispatch. The searchers found his body, already deceased, about 2 miles outside the village near the Kuskokwim River.
“According to the initial investigation Dull intentionally went out into very cold weather without proper cold weather gear,” Alaska State Troopers Public Information Officer Austin McDaniel wrote in an email to KYUK.
A dozen miles northeast of Napakiak, during the time Dull was missing, the Bethel airport recorded temperatures at 4 degrees, with wind speeds at 8 miles per hour.
Troopers do not suspect foul play and do not think that alcohol was involved in Dull's death.