Country Singer Missing After Early Morning Hunt
Craig Strickland, lead singer of the band Backroad Anthem, is still missing 36 hours after beginning an early morning hunting trip in Oklahoma with his friend Chase Morland. Morland's body was found Monday afternoon.
The search for Strickland resumed Monday afternoon after being suspended earlier in the day due to icy boat ramps at Kaw Lake, in Kay County, Okla. According to KFSM-TV, that’s where the two men went to hunt. A mid-afternoon Facebook update on the Backroad Anthem page revealed that the search team recovered Morland's body.
The two men were aware of the severe weather conditions, sending the following tweet at 11:42PM on Saturday night:
News that the pair had not made it back came Sunday night. A post at the Backroad Anthem Facebook page reveals that Strickland’s father, Randy, alerted his bandmates that there had not been any contact for 24 hours.
"We received a text last night from Randy Strickland asking us band members to pray for Craig and Chase,” the post reads.
We do know they issued a search party which ended last night about 2 am, and that they were resuming the search party this morning at 6:30 am. We are asking all fans to please pray for Craig & Chase to be found safe and sound. Please also pray for Craigs family, his wife, and for us band members.
PoncaCityNow.com reports that shortly after midnight on Monday, a capsized boat was located.
At their Facebook page, Backroad Anthem describe themselves as a six-piece country-rock band out of Fayetteville, Ark. that brings a list of original songs to their high-energy set every night. Formed in 2012, the group has opened for artists like Chris Young, Gary Allan, Dustin Lynch and Tyler Farr.
Strickland describes himself as being 50 percent Arkansas and 50 percent Nashville on Twitter. The band recently spent time in Music City and planned to finish their 2015 touring schedule with a New Year's Eve show in Little Rock, Ark.
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