(CNN)Country music singer Craig Strickland has been found dead, according to Lt. Kera Phillippi with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Strickland,
a 29-year-old vocalist in the country rock band Backroad Anthem, was
duck hunting with his friend Chase Morland, last month at Oklahoma's Kaw
Lake on Sunday as a fierce winter weather system was hitting central portions of the country, the band said.
After
relatives reported them missing, state troopers said they found
Morland's body at the lake last week, where their boat apparently
flipped.
The weather
at the time of the trip was perilous -- rain, sleet and snow pelted the
area, with wind gusts of up to 45 mph and wind chills as low as 15
degrees Fahrenheit -- and Morland acknowledged the danger in what is, in
retrospect, a haunting tweet Saturday night.
In case we don't come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma. #IntoTheStorm
Before his body was found, Strickland's wife said the family is overwhelmed with the amount of love and prayers received.
"Craig's dog Sam has been found. His boat has been confirmed as being capsized," Helen Strickland, a former Miss Arkansas USA, said Monday on Twitter. "They are still searching for Craig. Please keep praying."
Helen Strickland @HelenWisner (Twitter)
She later tweeted, "For everyone wanting to know, Sam is fine. He was a brave boy. He wouldn't leave Chase's body until the Warden found him."
Helen Strickland @HelenWisner (Twitter)
She later tweeted, "For everyone wanting to know, Sam is fine. He was a brave boy. He wouldn't leave Chase's body until the Warden found him."
Strickland's six-member Backroad Anthem
formed in Arkansas in 2012. The band posted what it said was a message
from Strickland's father Monday night.
"We
are trying to think of a scenario where he is still alive. Hoping
against the odds," the post reads. "We can't even stand to think about
it. We are devastated. Only God & time can put us back together."
News of the
ill-fated trip spread through the music industry. Musician Tyler Rich
recounted on Facebook that he and Strickland were sitting at a Nashville
bar about two months ago, talking about "how excited we were to see
what each of us would be able to accomplish in 2016."
"Just know we're praying for you brother and know there's still hope you'll be found," Rich's post reads.
Morland, of Van Buren, Arkansas, had worked at a Gellco Outdoors hunting supply store in Arkansas.
"Chase lost his life in a duck hunting accident in Ponca City, Ok," a post on the business's Facebook page
reads. "Our prayers and sympathy go out to the Morland family during
this time of loss. We ask all of our customers to remember this family
at this time."
