Demetri "Boy" Tcheripanoff Jr.

 So I know I haven't been keeping this up to date over the years and a LOT has happened in life since.

To update you on my personal life: Boy and I separated in 2016 - after all these years we just because different people and we were not getting along at all anymore. Both of our priorities changed over the years and we just didn't work out anymore so we both decided to go our own separate ways. We have been working on divorce papers to finalize everything but unfortunately, Boy did not sign anything yet and I wasn't exactly forcing him to get it done.

Well July 2, 2019 will never be the same for us here. Our daughter Veronika, my neice's Aaliyah and Halie were out hiking to get pictures next to the waterfall on the hike to Entrance Point. The weather was NOT the best to be out hiking but they weren't going far from town so we figured it would be ok. Well while they were out there taking photos, here comes Boy - hiking alone... They said he seemed surprised to run into anyone by the waterfall, especially his daughter.

So, from what we were told, Boy was not acting himself and seemed really down. The girls swore they seen his Judge handgun in his hoody pocket.... well he went and sat with Roni and talked with her for a bit. Roni asked him to go home with them, but he told her he will see her later at her Kooka's (his mom's house) house. That was the last time he was seen or heard from.

My daughter alerted my sister that her dad had not come back yet and it was 10PM. She kept going over checking to see if he came home yet because he TOLD her he would see her later at her Kooka's. By 10:30PM we rallied up our SAR team and took a group of us (I am part of our Search and Rescue group, our EMS group - I am an ETT - and part of our Volunteer Fire Dept.) and we all hiked out in that crappy, windy weather. The tide was high and the walk was not easy at all, but it wasn't stopping us from going to look for him!

We searched and searched and searched... We didn't get back to town until after 1:30AM in the dark, windy, rainy weather. We continued to search in town until 2:30AM, we would start back up at 6AM the next day. We had people searching from on the ground, by skiff looking along the beaches and in the water and we used the Helicopter to fly over almost the whole island searching for my kids dad. We continued searching for 2 weeks straight for any sign of him. NOTHING, nothing at all.... no answers, but so many questions....

It's coming up on 16 months not and we still have not found one single clue, nothing... where did he go? what happened? why was he hiking alone? We didn't really talk much except about the kids, so if he was going thru anything personal I would not have a clue. I heard some rumors, but I don't believe rumors! We will never know what happened, I don't think we are ever going to find him.

It hurts to not know what happened. It hurts to have my children go thru losing their dad and not knowing why or what. My daughter blames herself so much for him going missing, I try to tell her it's not her fault any at all, what happened was NOT her fault and she shouldn't have to live thinking that she didn't try hard enough to get him to go home or for her to stay with him until he returned. My kids miss their dad, they loved him! It hurts me to see the pain my kids are going thru because of all of this and I hope to GOD that it doesn't affect them too much as adults later in life.

So, since we never did get the divorce finalized - I am in a limbo with the state since he is considered "missing" and not deceased. So I don't have a death certificate to finalize my widow papers. I can't get my kids passports or travel out of state or country with them without the other parent's written consent (how can I get written consent from a missing person??). There is so much that I need to get done that I can't do because he's not considered deceased but just missing. How long is a person considered missing before any paperwork is done? I don't like having to be stuck in the position I am in, but I have no other option at the moment until the State of Alaska and the State Troopers declare anything other than him just being on the Missing Persons List.

I pray my kids can one day understand what happened, at least come to terms with what they had to grow up dealing with and that this doesn't affect their lives too much. I love my babies and I will raise them the best I can and I will never let them lose the memory of their dad! Just because we weren't together anymore doesn't mean we stopped caring for each other. I really hope that we get some kind of sign or something of what happened, but I doubt we will ever find anything... not with our weather and tides and the fact that we live on a small island with no where else to go..... There is no way to survive out here long in our weather and temps, exposure will kill you! 

You will never be forgotten Demetri "Boy" Tcheripanoff Jr. Born May 14, 1983 - Missing July 2, 2019