Roger Williams Jr. found dead on shore after Angoon search

Williams’ next of kin have been notified, and his remains are being transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, according to Alaska State Troopers. Authorities have not announced a cause of death or explained how he came to be on the shore. The available information does not establish that he drowned.⁠11

Angoon is a Southeast Alaska community on Admiralty Island, near Juneau. Williams lived there and was last seen at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, October 27, 2026, traveling from the boat harbor toward the ferry terminal in a 16-foot Lund skiff. KTOO described the boat as red and silver. His destination and purpose were known; the circumstances between that morning sighting and Wednesday’s recovery remain unexplained.⁠2⁠11

Troopers received the overdue-boater report at 5:31 p.m. Tuesday. Williams had been wearing a brown Carhartt jacket, black Carhartt pants and boots. The Coast Guard was contacted and sent a helicopter to search the area, while the effort also drew local volunteers. Wrangell search-and-rescue teams were activated to assist.⁠11⁠1

At about 8 p.m., the helicopter crew observed an unoccupied 16-foot Lund skiff near the shoreline between Killisnoo Island and Angoon. It was the same length and make as the boat Williams had been using. Anchorage Daily News described it as similar to his skiff; the troopers’ written account records the sighting without conclusively identifying the boat as his. That distinction leaves the empty boat as a search lead, not an established account of what happened to Williams.⁠11⁠1

The search took place amid rough conditions. Troopers reported 5-foot seas in Angoon on Tuesday and a temperature high of 49 degrees. Residents also described high winds, according to Anchorage Daily News. Those details describe the conditions surrounding the search. Authorities have not linked them to Williams’ death.⁠11⁠1

The effort continued into Wednesday, October 28, before Angoon searchers located Williams on shore. KTOO’s earlier account described a community-wide search and helicopter operations; its update labeled 4:30 p.m. Wednesday reported that he had been found dead. Those earlier descriptions of an active missing-person search were overtaken by the recovery announcement.⁠2

The written trooper update calls the recovery area “Danger Reef Point.” Anchorage Daily News, citing Department of Public Safety spokesperson Justin Freeman, calls it “Danger Point Reef” and places the reef about a mile northwest of Angoon. No precise recovery coordinates have been supplied. The shoreline where Williams was found should not be confused with the earlier empty-skiff sighting between Killisnoo Island and Angoon.⁠11⁠1

The two Wednesday times in the official account and local reporting describe different steps. Troopers’ dispatch gives 12:44 p.m. as the time Angoon Search and Rescue located Williams. Freeman told Anchorage Daily News that troopers were notified at about 12:45 p.m. that he had been found dead. One is the discovery time; the other is the notification time, not a competing account of when searchers reached him.⁠11⁠1

A village public safety officer responded to the recovery site. The troopers’ update summarized the officer’s assessment in a short finding:

That is a finding about the scene, not a medical explanation of the death. It does not establish how Williams left his boat, how he reached the shore or what caused his death. The transfer to the medical examiner is the next step identified publicly; the update supplies no examination date or result.⁠11

The search has answered where Williams was found, who located him and when. What remains unresolved is the sequence that brought him there—and whether the empty skiff seen Tuesday evening was his. Those gaps should remain gaps until authorities can establish more, rather than being filled by assumptions about the weather, the boat or the cause of death.⁠11⁠1