MISSOULA — A man died in a kayaking accident in northwest Montana on Sunday, May 8, 2022.
Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short says dispatchers received an SOS message from a GPS device in the Yaak River area near Troy at approximately 12:19 p.m.
Deputies responded to the area and updated information was received from the GPS device that the 38-year-old man who had sent the message was healthy and on a kayaking trip with three other people.
Short says a short time later, one of the people was able to make it to a phone and called 911 to report that 50-year-old Steven Koning of Idaho was kayaking with the group on the Yaak River approximately three to four miles north of the Kootenai River.
The group was going through a rough stretch of river when Koning fell out of his kayak, according to a news release.
Fellow kayakers attempted to help him get to safety, but he slipped underwater, and they lost sight of him.
David Thompson Search and Rescue, Troy Volunteer Ambulance, and Two Bear Air Rescue responded to help with the search.
Short says crews found Koning’s body shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the Kootenai River near the Idaho-Montana state line.
The Lincoln County Coroner has notified the family.
NOTE: The Sheriff's Office initially reported that Koning was from Oregon, but now says that he was Idaho.
TRENDING ARTICLES
- Fire in Great Falls was intentionally set
- Woman's body found in mountains
- Montana reservoirs and drought update
- Shannon Newth says farewell to KRTV
- Montana congressional candidate dies
