Craig Strickland – the musician best known as the lead singer of country band Backroad Anthem – has been found dead.
Strickland went missing during a hunting trip with life-long friend Chase Morland on December 27.
After Morland’s body was found near the capsized boat that he and Strickland had been using to hunt ducks near Ponca City, Oklahoma, officials began to fear the worst.
Details are scarce at this time, but early reports indicate that Strickland’s body was eventually found several miles from where the boat was overturned.
According to weather data from the area, Strickland and Morland would have found themselves in a severe winter storm with winds of up to 45 miles per hour and windchills as low as 15 degrees.
The friends seemed to have some idea of what they were getting into, as Morland posted the following ominous tweet just hours before they departed:
“In case we don’t come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma.”
An Arkansas native, Stickland lived in Fayetteville with his wife, Helen Wisner Strickland, whom he married in 2014.
Strickland was a larger than life figure in his hometown, a phenomenon he addressed in the lyrics to “Small Town Fame,” a 2013 single he penned that eventually reached the number 24 spot on the iTunes country chart.
Some of the biggest names in country music have already expressed their condolences to the Strickland family on social media.
