Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A teenage boy, who had been reported as a missing person by his family, was found dead on Monday afternoon on a logging road off Ames Creek Drive.
Police said Monday they were unable to immediately identify a body found inside the missing boy’s pickup truck, but the identity of the victim as Stephen Knapp was confirmed Tuesday.
Police said the person in the pickup was the apparent victim of a suicide.
Knapp, 17, disappeared early Saturday morning from a friend’s house near 43rd Avenue and Long Street after a party, according to his father, Frank Knapp, and police reports. Not feeling well and telling friends he was tired, Stephen Knapp drove away at approximately 12:45 a.m. Saturday in a white 1991 Chevy three-quarter-ton pickup truck. Since then, no one had heard from him.
“His girlfriend hasn’t, his best friend hasn’t,” Frank Knapp said earlier Monday.
Friends and family reported Stephen Knapp missing to Sweet Home police at approximately 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Frank Knapp said the family searched over the weekend for his son, particularly in the Quartzville area, where he loved to go.
Knapp was known to drive the logging roads near Sweet Home, and timber companies as well as federal state and county personnel working in the woods had been alerted to keep an eye out for him.
“Friends of Stephen Knapp located his pickup Monday afternoon on a logging road south of Sweet Home,” Police Chief Bob Burford said. “Sweet Home detectives and Linn County deputies responded and recovered the body of a white male matching the description of Knapp. Though a positive identification could not be made at the time, a death investigation is being conducted. No foul play is suspected.”
Sheriff Tim Mueller said, “At this time, there’s nothing to indicate otherwise.”
All indications are that Knapp “is who it’s probably going to be,” Mueller said, but the identity of the victim had not been confirmed as of Monday night.
Frank Knapp said his son had been missing once before, but that he knew where Stephen was that time. He and some friends had gotten stuck in a snow bank last spring.
Knapp was one of three teens who came up missing and then were found in the Canal Creek area, Mueller said.
Knapp, a senior at Sweet Home High School, was an avid fly fisherman, who enjoyed hunting and snowboarding, his father said. He played football for three years but decided not to continue midway through this season and to focus on hunting and fishing.
He enjoyed spending time in the Quartzville area and attended Community Chapel. A funeral service is planned for Saturday, Nov. 25. For information on the service time, call Workman & Steckly Funeral Chapel at 367-2891.
– Scott Swanson contributed to this report.