Benjamin Stepetin was last seen three weeks ago. His family says ‘we’re checking everything’
- Mark Sabbatini
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Family and volunteers trying to leave no space unsearched as tips and updates about homeless resident’s disappearance are shared online daily with the community
Graffiti and some strewn items were easy to spot under the bridge crossing Gold Creek, but only by crawling was it possible to reach a room-sized cavity in the embankment where the possessions of an unoccupied homeless encampment were strewn about.
Off to the left was another crawl space and another unoccupied camping space Martin Stepetin Sr. said appeared to be in current use. But none of the possessions, nor the graffiti at the "entrance" to the semi-concealed space, offered any indication his brother Benjamin "Benny" Stepetin had been there.
Benjamin Stepetin, 42, was last seen the morning of June 22, according to family members who have been searching for him since, with the search expanding to include rescue officials, other community members and friends from outside Juneau responding to requests for help.
The Juneau Police Department’s missing persons website states he was reported missing on June 29, 2025, and last seen during the early morning hours of June 22 on Front Street. He is described as an Alaska Native about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He also has two dark moles on the top of his nose and a two-inch scar on his forehead above his left eye.
He’s been homeless for the past two years and difficult to find at times, but Martin Stepetin said his brother until now hasn’t vanished for more than a few days.
"We've searched pretty high and low in the downtown area where he pretty much lived," he said. "And we have some tips of where homeless camps are, where he wouldn't normally hang out. And we have checked a lot of those already, but they just keep coming up with nothing."
A tip from a local historian about an abandoned mine shaft near Cope Park prompted a search on Saturday afternoon by Martin Stepetin Sr., his brothers Carl Stepetin and Fred Lewis, and cousin Jeremy Philemonoff.
"It's a very, very unconventional place that I honestly don't think that homeless people go mess around with, but you never know," Martin Stepetin Sr. said. "We're checking everything."
He said they’ve searched the park and nearby area previously since "we have heard multiple times of homeless people go up into Cope Park to have fires, to have privacy, to get away…but there's a trail that goes back up inside there and we haven't checked that extensively yet."
Starting at the park they spread out over footpaths leading upward to the Gold Creek Flume Trail, examining embankments along the river and flat spots where the undergrowth wasn’t too dense to prevent a person from seeking a spot to set up camp. From the flume trail they descended to the bridge crossing Gold Creek at Calhoun Avenue, which the group decided to check under before following a path along the river to the mine tunnel they were told about.
Lewis shined a flashlight on some graffiti scrawled on the underpass directly above the river flowing below, but it didn’t match what he’s seen by Benjamin Stepetin elsewhere.
"Just his initials," Lewis said. "He’s got a certain signature — BWS."
Lewis and Martin Stepetin Sr. then squeezed through a gap barely high enough to crawl under to get to the two adjacent spaces where well-sheltered — if disheveled — encampments were seen. While there was some discussion about who might have camped there and if they still were, nothing among the possessions suggested they should return to see if Benjamin Stepetin was staying there.
A short traverse brought the group to a tunnel that extended a few hundred feet into the hillside, but while there were a few bottles and other signs of human activity inside, there were no obvious indications it was being used as a homeless encampment.
Martin Stepetin Sr. said the family is familiar with his brother’s habits and which parts of town he frequents while living on the streets, and feels like all of those areas and plenty more have now been searched.
"We've learned of so many homeless places that people live that we didn't even know existed," he said.
Other agencies involved with the investigation include the Alaska Bureau of Investigations, and a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons investigator with the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Among those joining search efforts are the Juneau SEADOGS and dozens of other volunteers.
But while family members are posting updates on their efforts multiple times daily — among other things hoping to keep awareness of Benjamin Stepetin’s disappearance in people’s minds — "there's not nearly as many tips coming in from the public anymore," Martin Stepetin Sr. said.
Family and friends are far from giving up, however. Philemonoff, who said he’s known Benjamin Stepetin pretty much his entire life going back to when they were living in the western Alaska village of St. Paul, came down from Anchorage to assist the family with the search and is here "for the duration" until he is found.
Carl Stepetin said he and other family members are on leave from work while they conduct their search. A GoFundMe set up to help the family has as of Sunday morning raised $4,220 of its $5,000 goal.
While the four family members were conducting their search on Saturday, Carl Stepetin’s daughter, Marcy, was posting an update on social media offering a hopeful tone of recent developments — and the hope it might result in further information from the community about her uncle’s whereabouts.
"We had family members fly in, thanks to the donations of the tribe to help us so they can be here," she wrote in a Facebook post. She also noted "there was a tip he was spotted downtown at ‘Grumpys’ and was not too far from there 2-3 days prior. That was a relief and somewhat good news to our family. We were not getting any tips after maybe the 28th of last month of anyone seeing him."
"Thank you to those who donated, tips and prayers. We are hoping to find him soon."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
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