The Search for Aaron

On Tuesday, river adventurer and local guide and employee of Paddle Stop in New Haven, Aaron Duenke, hopped onto a large chunk of floating ice within a myriad of thousands of other floating ice chunks for a stand up ride of a couple miles from Dundee to just west of the Labadie power plant. He disappeared somewhere between the Washington bridge and the pull out point. This past January 2022, Duenke filmed himself on a similar ice chunk that looked to be about 12 feet in diameter an floated pleasantly along on a sunny winter day. He was perhaps hoping for a similar experience with this float. About 1:30 pm Tuesday afternoon, Duenke was spotted passing the Washington, MO boat ramp and a call to Washington Police led to the Police calling out to Duenke asking if he needed their help. Duenke waved them off saying that he had done this before and he was OK. Reluctantly, the Washington Police watched him pass by Washington and lost track of him as he passed under the HWY 47 bridge. Duenke was very familiar with this stretch of the river having passed by Washington in warmer weather in the river race known as the MR 340 in 2021 and 2022 on a stand up paddle board. Duenke had paddled from Kansas City on his way to St. Charles on the stand up paddle board, but the difference this time was that he was standing up on a large piece of ice which was certainly not as stable and the weather being cold and the water quite frigid. In phone photos taken by people on the boat ramp, it does not appear that Duenke was wearing a personal floatation device, or PFD which might offer him another degree of safety if the ice broke up under his feet and he was tumbled into the frigid water. 

The search for Aaron has created a command center at Paddle Stop Brewery and being led by Aaron's brother, Curtis and Curtis's wife Lauren. Duenke's grandmother, Sandy Roberts was also there to lend a hand with whatever is needed. Curtis has the stretch of river mapped out and has coordinated with volunteers with drones or on foot to do a thorough search on the north and south sides of the river. The Independent News will be searching with drone the area east of the Labadie power plant for any sign of Aaron. Duenke is known to be a hardy individual and could survive under the current conditions, but worries that he may have succumbed to the river, grow without word for the last two days. St. Louis TV stations, Channels 2, 4 and 5 have done zoom interviews with Curtis Duenke to report on his brother status. The Independent News will follow the story and update with any news.