Alaska State Troopers are investigating the death of a former colleague, who had gone on a remote bird hunting trip near Cordova.
Troopers say a pilot had dropped off Alex Arduser on Egg Island. The two had agreed to meet Tuesday on a small sandbar on the island, but Arduser didn’t show up at the appointed time.
Troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said the sandbar was the only place on the island that an airplane with wheels can land.
He said the pilot spotted Arduser’s partially submerged body a short time later, about two and a half miles from the sandbar.
Troopers have recovered Arduser’s body and sent it to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy to learn more about whether injuries were involved, as well as a possible time of death.
Arduser was living in Cordova with his family. He was 44 and retired from the Alaska State Troopers last August, after serving in the department for two decades.
Arduser was an Alaska Wildlife Trooper. He worked in Aniak, Cordova, Soldotna and Unalaska and took part in the department’s commercial and sport fishing enforcement in Bristol Bay.
He told KUCB, the public radio station in Unalaska, that he tried to be “fair and consistent” in his work.
