‘It’s just so heavy’: fiancée of Iron Dog racer calls discovery of body bittersweet closure

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The fiancée of Iron Dog racer Skye Rench called the discovery of the 32-year-old’s body last week bittersweet while saying it brings his loved ones a bit of closure, months after he fell through Susitna River ice while riding on an ATV as he worked as a drilling contractor.

“It’s just so heavy,” Heidi Goozen said on Tuesday. “But then, at the same time, I felt relieved because I always would think about the river and like, ‘I wonder where he is?’ you know, like, what is he hung up on or, just curious and my mind would always go there and now I don’t have to think about that, which is nice, I guess.”

Alaska State Troopers say Rench’s body was positively identified on Friday after a private pilot discovered him a day earlier near the mouth of the Susitna River.

Goozen said she received a call Friday morning. At first, authorities weren’t sure which body they had found, but based on dental records and photos of tattoos that the family had sent troopers, it helped identify him quickly that morning.

Rench reportedly fell through the ice on March 6 while crossing the river on an ATV with Sean Kendall, who was also reported missing. Kendall has not yet been found.

Troopers recovered the body Thursday with the help of an Alaska Dive, Rescue, and Recovery member and took it to the Wasilla Airport, where it was then transported for an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner.

Now that the body has been found, Goozen said the plan is to cremate Rench once the majority of his out-of-state family can arrange an Alaska trip this summer.

“We each want to have a piece of our own, of the ashes, but we’ll probably sprinkle some of the ashes in that [Susitna] river because he spent a lot of his childhood and adulthood up in that area, and then of course passed in that area,” Goozen said. “So that’s an appropriate place for that, as well.”

Rench was doing contract work for Alaska Directional, a drilling company with a remote project near Point Mackenzie that required crossing the river, according to Goozen.

He was also known for his love of snowmachining, and had competed in the annual Iron Dog race, a long-distance race billed as the “World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race.”

“Skye was someone who would never leave things unsaid,” Goozen said. “That’s another thing that he taught me and other people, as well, that no matter what or how you feel, if you’re uncomfortable, whatever, you just never left anything unsaid.

“That’s something else that myself and the rest of Skye’s family talked about is we had no regrets. There was nothing that was left unsaid, unsettled, whatever it may be, so that’s something special about him.”

Goozen said she’s asking everyone to continue to keep Kendall’s family in mind and pray for his body to be recovered.

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