When Sheri Ford left work two days after Christmas in 2022, she suspected that “something was wrong” with her son, Aaron Duenke.
Hours before, during her lunch break, the healthcare worker saw her 34-year-old son’s Facebook Live post announcing his plan to travel down the Missouri River on ice. This was not entirely new territory for Duenke, a nature lover and adventurer from Washington, Missouri, who had successfully gone ice surfing the previous year.
“I think I posted on there something like, ‘Oh my gosh, Aaron, I hate when you do this,'” Ford, 57, tells People. “That was my last communication with him.”
When Ford left the neurology clinic at 4:30 p.m. local time, she was concerned because she had not heard from him. “It just kind of hit me all of a sudden that Aaron was out on the ice,” she tells me. “And so I tried to call him and I did not get an answer.”
After several failed attempts, Ford was able to contact her mother, who was supposed to pick up Duenke, and discovered he had never arrived.
Following a weeks-long search and a more than two-year wait for answers, some of her son’s remains were discovered along the river near Chesterfield on Sunday, April 13, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the deceased’s identity five days later.
Aaron took the summer before his death off to spend time with his children, son Lucas, now 11, and daughter Lola, now 9. They spent the entire summer traveling, camping, and playing outdoors.
According to Ford, when their father went missing, the children were “absolutely crushed.”
Ford’s best friend, Becky Boucher, who organized a GoFundMe to help Duenke’s children, describes the days following his disappearance as “very difficult.” During the first few weeks, she spoke with Ford every day, who wanted to be “strong” for everyone else.
“You are hoping for the best and just preparing for the worst,” says Boucher, who calls Duenke a man with the “biggest heart.”
Duenke struggled with spina bifida and bipolar disorder as a child in St. Louis County, but he found solace in nature.
Aaron, a self-employed craftsman, renovated houses, built his own paddle boards, and competed in the MR340, a 340-mile nonstop race down the Missouri River. During one race, Duenke took the time to travel with Jim, an older man who had never run the race before. When they arrived at the finish line, Duenke raced ahead, ensuring that the other competitor finished last and received the consolation prize of a hand-carved oar.
“He just wanted to make sure that Jim could make it to the end, that he was safe,” Ford recalls. “He was just always thinking about other people’s joy.”
As Duenke’s family deals with a new wave of grief, his kindness is at the forefront. He has four surviving siblings. His older brother, Curtis, was like a “twin,” according to their mother.
“He was an outstanding dad that showed his children life is about family and adventure,” according to Curtis. “He had an insatiable desire to get out in nature and explore. He was challenging to keep up with, but he was also an excellent listener and one-of-a-kind. “A kind friend to everyone he met.”
Following Duenke’s death, his children moved to Arizona with their mother, Brooke Duenke, to be closer to her mother.
As they adjust to life without their father, Ford is also adjusting to life without her “best friend.” Ford has found solace in the fact that Duenke died on the river he loved so much. “It was just another adventure,” Ford explains.