Found Deceased AK - Phillip Keltner, 63, Kenai River, 4 Aug 2017

The relatives of Phillip Keltner, 63, have been mobilizing in Soldotna since the Colorado man went missing in an accident while fishing on the river last week.

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"We don't know if he's still in the water or if he made it to shore or got disoriented or collapsed somewhere," Missy Keltner said in a phone interview Tuesday. "But we're at a loss and not giving up hope and we're doing our best."
Missy Keltner said her father is an avid fisherman who splits his time between Colorado and a home in Sterling where he spent each summer for the last 20 years. Missy Keltner said he knows the Kenai River well.




Missy Keltner said it still wasn't clear Tuesday what caused the boat accident Friday night. Her father had gone fishing with friends the night the boat lost control at river Mile 19, throwing the four men from the boat. The other three men made it to shore but Phillip Keltner did not.



Missy Keltner said the recovered boat has cable steering. After inspecting the boat, the family wasn't sure if it hit a rock or had some sort of malfunction. According to state troopers, none of the men were wearing life jackets.

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Blustering winds and rain may have stopped the Soldotna senior softball league from playing their final game of the season Tuesday, but it wouldn’t stop them from gathering at the bank of the Kenai River to say goodbye to a lost friend.





About a dozen of the league’s players turned out to lay a wreath of flowers on the river near Centennial Park’s boat launch to honor Kurt Keltner, one of their teammates, who was lost in the river earlier this month.

Keltner, who lived in Sterling during the summers and Colorado in the winters, has been missing since Aug. 4, when he was thrown from a fishing boat due to a mechanical error near Centennial Park and was not able to swim to shore. Three other people in the boat were able to make it to shore. None of the boat’s passengers were wearing life jackets at the time, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch. At the time of his disappearance, Keltner was wearing a black sweatshirt with a red fish on the back, camouflage pants and boots.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska authorities have confirmed a body found on a Kenai (KEE’-nye) River beach last week was that of a missing boater from Colorado.
The Peninsula Clarion reports the state medical examiner confirmed the man’s identity as Phillip Keltner. The Kenai newspaper reported he lived in Sterling during the summers and in Colorado during the winters.

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