When Craig Strickland was found dead on Monday (Jan. 4) at age 29, he left behind a promising country career, his wife and family, and five bandmates from the group Backroad Anthem. 
 
 Those five guys took to Facebook on Monday -- two weekends after Strickland went missing -- to mourn their late friend and bandmate. 
 
 "Today we lost our brother, our best friend, our bandmate. Craig was the most amazing person whose passion for life couldn't be matched. Thankful to know he fought his way from the water to a hill and was lying in the shape of a cross on his back looking up to his Heavenly Father." 
 
 Country Singer Craig Strickland Found Dead at 29 
 
 The band also sent love to Strickland's mom and dad, his widow, and anyone else in the late musician's life, all of whom have been awaiting news on Strickland since he and his friend Chase Morland disappeared while on a hunting trip in Oklahoma. 
 
 "We pray today for God to wrap his arms around Randy, Joanne, Helen, and the family, and to help us through this extremely difficult time. We want to thank every single friend, fan, and family member for your thoughts, prayers, and love. Today he is smiling down on us and we know he will always be with us. He will always be here to help guide us along the way. We love you Craig Strickland and we will forever miss you!" 
 
 Read their full message below: 

 Craig Strickland's Widow Shares Details of His Final Hours: 'They Found Him Lying in the Shape of a Cross' 
 
 Craig was found today. We can finally rest knowing that he is at Home in Heaven with his Father. The night of the accident he had fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in. He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep. They found him lying in the shape of a cross looking up to his Father. Thank you to every single person who prayed for him and our family during this time. There was not a more peaceful way for him to go into the arms of our Lord, and I know your prayers had a role in making that happen. I know he saw Jesus at that moment when he laid down and walked arm in arm with Him into a better Everlasting Life. I love you with all my heart Craig Michael. #craigstrickland A photo posted by Helen Wisner Strickland (@helenelizabethstrickland) on Jan 4, 2016 at 11:30am PST 
 
 #CraigStrickland was found today. He is safe with his Father in Heaven. Thank you Lord for leading us to him today. I will praise you, Amen. — Helen Strickland (@HelenWisner) January 4, 2016 
 
 Source Twitter 
 
 Hours after Craig Strickland's body was found at Bear Creek Cove near Kaw Lake in Kay County, Oklahoma, his wife, Helen Strickland, is shedding some light on his last moments."Craig was found today. We can finally rest knowing that he is at home in heaven with his father," Helen posted on Instagram "The night of the accident he had fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in. He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep. They found him lying in the shape of a cross looking up to his father.""Thank you to every single person who prayed for him and our family during this time," she wrote. "There was not a more peaceful way for him to go into the arms of our Lord, and I know your prayers had a role in making that happen. I know he saw Jesus at that moment when he laid down and walked arm in arm with Him into a better Everlasting Life. I love you with all my heart Craig Michael. #craigstrickland"The former Miss Arkansas confirmed the death of her husband earlier on Twitter.Friends and family were clinging to hope that he might be found alive after his beloved dog Sam, who was hunting with him at the time, was found safe and sound after the Backroad Anthem singer, 29, and his friend Chase Morland went missing during winter storm Goliath on Dec. 27. Morland's body was found Dec. 28.Morland had tweeted an ominous message foreshadowing the tragic turn of events."In case we don't come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma. #IntoTheStorm," Morland, 22, wrote in the early morning hours on Sunday. Strickland also retweeted the message the same day."We are hanging in there," Strickland's bandmate Toby Freeman told PEOPLE exclusively Monday. "We are still in shock. It's still hard to believe and I know the family is struggling." 

 PONCA CITY, Okla. (AP) — The body of a country singer was recovered Monday at an Oklahoma lake, one week after he disappeared while going duck hunting with a companion who had sent an ominous tweet about threatening weather. 
 
 This undated image released by Lightfly Creative shows Craig Strickland, lead singer of Arkansas-based country-rock band Backroad Anthem. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Strickland, 29, of Springdale,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Craig M. Strickland, 29, of Springdale, Arkansas, had died at Kaw Lake, near the Kansas-Oklahoma state line. The body of his hunting partner, Chase Morland, 22, of Van Buren, Arkansas, was recovered Dec. 28. 
 
 Strickland was the lead singer of Arkansas-based country-rock band Backroad Anthem, which said Monday that it appeared Strickland was able to drag himself out of the water before dying. 
 
 "Today we lost our brother, our best friend, our bandmate," the band said in a statement released by its publicist, Jensen Sussman of Nashville, Tennessee, to The Associated Press. "Thankful to know he fought his way from the water to a hill and was lying in the shape of a cross on his back looking up to his Heavenly Father ..." 
 
 "Today he is smiling down on us and we know he will always be with us. He will always be here to help guide us along the way. We love you Craig Strickland and we will forever miss you!" the statement said. 
 
 A tweet from Morland ahead of the hunt suggested they knew the danger: "In case we don't come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through (the storm) to kill ducks in Oklahoma. #IntoTheStorm." 
 
 A strong weather system whipped Oklahoma with high winds during the Christmas weekend, with blizzard conditions in the west and strong thunderstorms and heavy rains to the east. The pair's boat was found Dec. 27, the same day the two disappeared. Before Strickland's body was recovered, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management had said six people had died in the severe weather around Christmas. 
 
 Kay County Sheriff Everette VanHoesen said last week that inexperienced boaters can be surprised by worsening conditions on the 38-mile-long lake. 
 
 "It's a big lake, and when we have high winds, the lake will get whitecapped; the waves get pretty big," VanHoesen said last week. 
 
 Strickland was married to former Miss Arkansas Helen Wisner.
– Country singer Craig Strickland didn't suffer in his last moments, his grieving wife says. In an Instagram post made after the singer's body was found on Monday, Helen Strickland shared details of the death of her husband, who perished on a Dec. 27 duck hunting trip when his boat apparently overturned during a winter storm, People reports. "The night of the accident he had fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in," his wife wrote. "He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep. They found him lying in the shape of a cross looking up to his father." Strickland, an Arkansas native, had been on a hunting trip over the border in Oklahoma, where authorities say at least six people died in severe weather around Christmas, the AP reports. In a Facebook post, Strickland's five surviving bandmates from Backroad Anthem mourned the man they described as brother, best friend, and bandmate. They praised him as the "most amazing person whose passion for life couldn't be matched" and thanked fans for their prayers, reports Billboard. (Strickland's friend Craig Morland, whose body was recovered last week, sent a prophetic tweet not long before they disappeared.)