Alfred Al Kochendorfer, 49, left his Palmer, Alaska home on October 27, 2000 for a planned three- or four-day solo bear hunt near the Knik Glacier in an area called the Butte. He was seen that same day at a gas station in the Butte; that was the last confirmed sighting. A few days later two hunters found his four-wheeler abandoned on a Jim Creek trail about one mile from his residence, but there was no sign of him or his hunting gear.

An experienced outdoorsman, Kochendorfer was well equipped for cold conditions — reported to have carried hunting supplies, cold-weather gear, extra gasoline and a gray dome tent — and was described as a White male, 5 feet 8 inches, 170 pounds, with brown hair, hazel eyes, a beard and scars on his lower left arm. Search-and-rescue teams conducted an extensive but ultimately unsuccessful search; the case remains classified as a lost or injured missing person and is still open with the Alaska State Troopers in Palmer.

Does anyone who hunted or traveled the Butte or Jim Creek areas around late October 2000 remember seeing his four-wheeler, camp gear or Alfred himself?