Missing Country Singer Craig Strickland's Dog Found Alive as Backroad Anthem Band Member Pleads for His Safe Return

Backroad anthem singer disappeared while on a duck-hunting trip

Hope is found in a four-legged friend.

Helen Strickland, wife of missing country music singer Craig Strickland, revealed Tuesday afternoon that their dog, Sam, has been found alive, giving the family hope that they will find Craig, too. Helen turned to Twitter to update Craig's fans and followers about the conditions in which the authorities found Sam.

"For everyone wanting to know, Sam is fine. He was a brave boy," she tweeted. "He wouldn't leave Chase's body until the Warden found him."

Authorities began searching for Strickland and his friend, Chase Morland, Monday after their boat they were using on their duck-hunting trip was discovered capsized north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eventually law enforcement would find Morland dead, but Strickland has yet to be found. Authorities told E! News that the search for Strickland remains a search and rescue mission, not a search and recover.

Strickland, who is a member of Backroad Anthem, has received an outpouring of prayers and well wishes since disappearing, including from band member Toby Freeman. Sharing a heartwarming picture of Strickland and himself on Twitter, Freeman wrote, "Bro I love you.... We miss you come home soon #prayersforCraig."

Freeman also opened up to People about the discovery of Sam and revealed that this is giving Strickland's family more faith that he'll be found alive. "Craig's dog being found alive is a very good sign," Freeman told the magazine. "That's a piece of hope that we're actually clinging on to.

"Dog being man's best friend is a saying that's so common, but it's actually so true in this case," he says. "Sam's an older lab and for him to make it in such harsh conditions—it's just so amazing and we're clinging on to that."

Search efforts had to be called off early Monday after bad weather and fading light made it difficult, but continued early Tuesday morning. Eerily enough, Morland tweeted an ominous post shortly before taking off on their hunting trip. "In case we don't come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma. #IntoTheStorm," he wrote.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to both parties' families.