How did Starett Burk, Christian Ruckman, Spencer Hall, three avid hunters come to die on a duck hunting trip from hypothermia?
Three friends have who went missing during a duck hunting trip have been found dead in a Texas bay.
Recovered were the bodies of Starett Burk, 25, Christian Ruckman, 18 and Spencer Hall, 19 after being pulled from waters near Carancahua Bay on Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
A report via the Caller Times tells of the experienced hunters from the Houston dying from hypothermia after they went missing early Friday night.
Two of the bodies were found in the bay waters around 1pm and the third body was found three hours later underneath their 17-foot boat.
The remains of a dog were also found notes abc13.
Temperatures were around 45 degrees Farenheit that morning with light rain. The wind speed was around 22 mph.
Conditions that the trio had encountered many times before without incident.
Stoney Burk, Starett’s older brother, said the men were true outdoorsman often hunting together. His brother hoped to become a game warden, he said.
Told the brother: ‘They knew the area. They knew where they were going. It wasn’t their first time down there. It wasn’t their first time down there his year.’
Some have wondered including this author whether in some way the trio’s youth, sense of bravado and idealism of the hunt had led the men into being deceived of their invincibility. They after all were the hunters and not the hunted. And where others less seasoned in the realm of hunting may have sought the sanctuary of dry land or even just calling for support the men decided to press on, perhaps never suspecting that they too could be prey to the nature they had come to challenge.
Officials learned the men were missing after Ruckman’s girlfriend alerted authorities after failing to return home on Friday.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with the Coast Guard for a land and water search that included an airplane and helicopter, reported KHOU.
The three friends were avid duck hunters and according to the dailymail had previously posted photos on Facebook of their excursions.
Leading into the announcement of the deceased men’s discovery, Christian Ruckman’s mother, Teresa Trygstad Ruckman had asked well wishers to send prayers as officials searched for her son in a Facebook post on Saturday morning.
But it was not to be.
Upon learning of her son’s death later that day, the mother posted a new status that said: ‘Today is by far the worse [sic] day of my life.’
The youngest of the three, Ruckman from Dayton, Texas, was a cafe worker at a movie theater and studied electrical technology at Lee College, according to his Facebook.
Reiterated Stoney Burk, Starett’s brother: ‘We hope that maybe some other lives might be saved just by knowing that things can happen and you’ve got to be prepared for the worst’.
Authorities have said they do not suspect foul play and are at a loss as to how the men who had made the same trek many times before came to lose their bearings and succumb to the elements.
