A man who went missing in Fairbanks five months ago was found dead last week.
Fairbanks police confirmed on Monday that the state medical examiner's office positively identified a body found near the corner of Peger Road and Egan Avenue as 21-year-old Devin Standifer. They said that no foul play is suspected in his death.
Community members had been searching for Standifer since he vanished on the night of Dec. 7 last year after a physical altercation.
Standifer's case led to at least one organized protest in Fairbanks over frustrations with the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people across the U.S. Others voiced their concerns on social media that local law enforcement had neglected Standifer's case.
Sandy Koyukuk, Standifer's grandmother, said she wanted to thank all the people who helped spread the word about her missing grandson — even strangers.
"I would just like to recognize the outpouring of support," she said. "There's people all through the nation. We have people that we don't even know that have been there for us, and I would like to thank everyone from all our family."
The day before Standifer disappeared, he had been named a person of interest in a sexual assault case at the residence where he was last seen. Fairbanks police later identified him as a suspect in the assault, but he was never charged with a crime.
The Fairbanks Police Department did not respond to requests for further comment, and the medical examiner's toxicology report has not been returned.
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