Update: Body of missing man found in Bayfield County

Foul play is not suspected in the death of a man who disappeared after dropping off a friend last week in northern Wisconsin.

Searchers found a body of 30-year-old Arik Askelin in a wooded area of rural Bayfield County on Sunday afternoon.

Askelin had last been seen at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 4 after driving a friend from Douglas County to Ashland. He had been given verbal directions on how to return to Superior, but did not make it back.

The Bayfield County Sheriff’s Office says the vehicle Askelin had driven was found on Saturday, Jan. 8, stuck in snow on a remote forest trail about 10 miles west of Washburn. A news release from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says that evidence on the site indicates that the vehicle got stuck while trying to turn around.

A single set of footprints led away from the vehicle. Deputies searched the area Saturday but could not find Askelin. His body was found Sunday about a mile away from the vehicle.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service, and the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Service assisted the Douglas and Bayfield County sheriff’s offices and Ashland Police Department.