A body was found inside a bus in Saxman, just south of Ketchikan, over the weekend. The bus belonged to Thomas Nelson, a Saxman man who has been missing since October, but troopers have not yet been able to positively identify the body.
On Sunday, Alaska State Troopers detected a foul smell around the big white tour bus parked across from the Three Bears gas station. The bus has dark windows and rows of shelving blocking the view inside.
Troopers said the bus was locked from the inside, but they were able to force the door open. They found the body on the floor in the back of the bus. They said the level of decomposition made it “obvious” the body had been there for months.
The body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage to be identified.
Thomas Nelson, the man that had lived in the bus where the body was found, was declared missing in early December of last year. Members of Nelson’s family were on scene when the body was discovered.
Lacey Nelson, the missing man’s niece, said she believes the body belongs to her uncle.
“We are devastated but also glad we have some closure,” Nelson said in written communications with KRBD. “Our family is sad it wasn’t discovered much sooner.”
The last time Nelson was seen was in mid-October, at the convenience store across the street. At the time, the manager of the Three Bears Fuel and Convenience told KRBD that Nelson came into the store, and their security tape showed him returning to the bus and then he “just vanished.”
According to his niece, most of Thomas Nelson’s relatives do not live in Saxman or on Revillagigedo Island. Kristie McDowell, another of Nelson’s nieces, says they had been requesting troopers search the bus for months.
Troopers said in an email that when Nelson went missing, they made multiple attempts to look inside the locked bus, but couldn’t see through the clutter that was inside. They said they didn’t have authorization to force entry into the bus back then, but were granted forced entry once it was suspected, due to the odor, that a deceased person may be inside.
An investigation into the death is ongoing, but foul play is not suspected at this time. Troopers are currently working to confirm the identity of the deceased.
