The body of country singer Craig Strickland was found Monday morning in northern Oklahoma after he disappeared last week during a duck hunting trip, authorities said.
Strickland, the 29-year-old frontman of Backroad Anthem, had gone on the trip to Kaw Lake with a friend, Chase Morland.
On Sunday, Dec. 27, as a powerful storm churned through Texas and the Midwest, the pair was reported missing. Morland’s body was discovered in the lake the following day.
Using sonar, ground crews and a helicopter, Oklahoma Highway Patrol searched for Strickland’s body last week. On Monday, Highway Patrol spokeswoman Kera Philippi said that he was found in a northwestern section of the lake known as Bear Creek Cove.
Additional details were not immediately available.
Backroad Anthem formed in 2012 as a six-member cover band playing for extra money on weekends. A year later, the group’s first EP, “Small Town Fame,” appeared on iTunes’ top country music chart, according to the band’s official Facebook page.
Fans and friends were heartbroken on Monday.
“Craig Strickland was a man, husband, bandmate, son, and friend taken way too soon,” one wrote on Facebook. “I am glad that [his family] found some closure, but we all wish that you were here with us instead.”
Strickland's wife, Helen, wrote on Twitter that he "is safe with his father in heaven."