Unalakleet has suffered another blow this winter with the death of Harold Soxie.
Soxie was found dead five miles north of Unalakleet on an ATV trail to Shaktoolik. His death is the seventh the village of 720 has seen in the last month and a half.
According to Jeff Erickson from the Unalakleet Joint Response Group, 36 year old Soxie was last heard from early Sunday morning. He was on his way back to town from a four-wheeler trip.
The response group was notified Sunday evening, when they did a complete sweep of the town. But, as Erickson said, the search didn’t go beyond city limits that night in part due to the weather, but also because of some differing details.
“We had some conflicting information that texts and calls had been made that he had made it home,” explained Erickson. “The trooper was involved, too, and he decided not to send people out until we were sure.”
After finding no sign of Soxie, searchers were sent out before daybreak on Monday. They found his four-wheeler first, and then, two miles closer to town, they found Soxie’s body on the trail.
Erickson suspects that something went wrong with Soxie’s four-wheeler, forcing him to walk back to town. As of Tuesday morning, though, Erickson wasn’t sure if the machine had been recovered.
“Whether it was out of gas or broken down, our concern when we got to the four-wheeler was less to find out what was wrong with the four-wheeler and more to see if we could locate where he was.”
Among other questions left unanswered is whether alcohol was a factor. There have been reports that alcohol may have been involved, but Erickson said that hasn’t been confirmed.
Erickson had known Soxie since he was born. He described him as, “just a real likable, easy-going kid.”
Soxie’s death carries even more weight because of his connection with Vivian Foote, the Unalakleet elder who went missing less one month ago. He was Foote’s nephew, and as Erickson explained, he was on the front lines of the search and rescue effort to find Foote.
Soxie’s body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy. Meanwhile, Vivian Foote has yet to be recovered.
