On the evening of April 6, 2016, 40-year-old Jesse Mills told his wife he was going for a walk from their Sitka, Alaska, home. His lime-green and white single-seat Seaward kayak was also missing, and it is believed he went on a solo kayaking trip without leaving a float plan. Weather that night was rainy with winds between 15 and 25 miles per hour. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black Carhartt pants.

When Mills did not return, his wife reported him missing the next morning. The Coast Guard, Sitka Police, and Fire Departments searched, and friends and coworkers joined in with private vessels. Two days later a Coast Guard helicopter found his overturned kayak wedged between rocks on Kasiana Island, about four miles from Sitka, with a paddle still attached. Extensive air and ground searches of the island and surrounding waters, including search dogs, turned up no sign of Mills. The Coast Guard later suspended its active search, and the case remains open with Mills presumed to have perished at sea.

Did anyone in the Sitka area have contact with Jesse the evening of April 6 or notice anything unusual along the route toward Kasiana Island?