Two Missing Juneau Teens Found Dead in Woods With Gunshot Wounds

Two teenagers reported missing in Juneau, Alaska, early on a Monday morning were found dead in the woods that same afternoon, both from apparent gunshot wounds, with a firearm recovered at the scene, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Leotis R. Phillips and Zoey L. Clark were both 16. Police found their bodies at about 2:25 p.m. on Monday, August 31, 2026, on a hillside above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway. The two had been reported missing only hours earlier that same morning.

Both families were notified before the deaths were made public. The case is still open. Police have not described what happened between the time the teens left home and the time they were found.

What the Police Release Said

The department's account came from Deputy Chief Krag Campbell. In a release, police said preliminary information indicated that both teens died from gunshot wounds and that a firearm was located at the scene. An update to that release, issued at about 5:30 p.m., confirmed the teenagers had been found dead.

"Preliminary information indicates that both juveniles died from gunshot wounds," the update stated. "A firearm was located at the scene. Their bodies will be sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage for autopsy."

Police stressed that the details were based on a preliminary investigation and could change as the case develops. That kind of language is standard in the first hours of a death investigation, when officers know the outcome but not yet the full sequence of events.

The Search Began Before Sunrise

Phillips was reported missing from his home on Kanata Street at about 5:52 a.m. Clark was reported missing from her home on Teal Street at about 8:49 a.m. The two reports came in nearly three hours apart. Both homes sit in the Mendenhall Valley, and police said the teens were believed to be together.

While the search was on, police shared physical descriptions of both. Phillips was described as an Alaska Native male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing between 140 and 160 pounds, with long black hair usually pulled into a ponytail and brown eyes. Clark was described as a white female, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and roughly 140 pounds.

Only a few hours separated the first missing-person report from the discovery of the bodies. A morning that started with two families calling police ended the same afternoon with officers on a wooded hillside.

A Warning Not to Approach

Because officers believed the teens might have a gun, they asked the public to stay away rather than help track them down. The release said so directly. "Because the juveniles may have access to a firearm, members of the public should not approach them or attempt to contact them," it stated.

That advisory stood through the morning and into the early afternoon. It was still active when police released the update saying the pair had been found dead.

The Hillside Above Glacier Highway

The wooded area is above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway, near the Switzer Village Mobile Home Park in the Lemon Creek section of Juneau. It sits close to an Alaska Department of Transportation facility and the Alaska Marine Highway System call center.

Glacier Highway runs along the coast, and the spot where the teens were located is tucked into the trees on the hillside above it. It is not a remote backcountry site. It is a patch of woods just off a working road, near homes and offices, in Alaska's capital city.

More Than 150 People at a Candlelight Vigil

The night after the bodies were found, more than 150 friends, family members and teachers gathered at Clark's high school for a candlelight vigil. It was held near the place where the two were found.

Ariah Clark, a cousin of Zoey Clark, spoke to the crowd. She said she believed the two teens had been in pain, and that they found peace together in their final moments.

A vigil of that size in a city the size of Juneau says something about how many people knew these two. Classmates, relatives and staff from the school stood in the same spot where the search ended, holding candles, a day after the worst news of their week.

How Juneau Responded

The Juneau School District said it plans to make counseling and support services available to students and staff affected by the deaths. Districts often do this after a student dies, and here two 16-year-olds from the same community were gone at once.

Phillips had spent time at the Zach Gordon Youth Center, which posted on social media that it was deeply saddened by the loss of two of its teens. The center shared suicide prevention resources and urged anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts to call or text 988 and to talk with an adult.

The police department, for its part, extended condolences to the teens' families, friends, classmates and others affected by the deaths.

What Investigators Have Not Said

Police have confirmed the outcome but not the story behind it. They have not said who fired the gun, whether the wounds were self-inflicted, or how the firearm came to be at the scene. The release said only that preliminary information pointed to gunshot wounds and that a weapon was recovered.

Those questions may be answered by the autopsies. Both bodies were sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage, the state's central facility for that work. Until then, the official record stops at what the department has confirmed.

Where the Case Stands

The investigation into the circumstances of the deaths remains ongoing, and police said no additional information was available. What is known is spare and hard: two 16-year-olds, Leotis R. Phillips and Zoey L. Clark, reported missing on a Monday morning, found dead the same afternoon on a hillside off Glacier Highway, a gun beside them.

For a small city, the loss lands on almost everyone. The names on the missing-persons advisory that morning belonged to two kids people already knew, and by Tuesday night more than 150 of them were standing in the trees with candles. The rest of the answers are with the medical examiner in Anchorage.