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Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Boat, human remains found in Alaska believed to be Texas family who went missing in August
A boat and human remains believed to belong to a Texas family who went missing from Alaskan waters nearly a year ago have been found, officials announced Wednesday. 42-year-old David Maynard of Waco, Texas was on a boat with his wife, 37-year-old Mary, as well as their children, 11-year-old Colton and 8-year-old Brantley, when they went missing on Aug. 3, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. They were boating in the Kachemak Bay near Homer, Alaska, southwest of Anchorage, DPS said. The U.S. Coast Guard searched for the family but eventually suspended the search after nearly 24 hours, "pending the development of new information." "The decision to suspend a search is never easy and involves the careful consideration of many factors including environmental conditions and search operations," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Shannon Kerney previously told USA TODAY. "Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends, and loved ones of the missing people during this unimaginably difficult time." According to DPS, the Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team tried to use sonar equipment to find the boat the family was on, but found nothing initially. The family was on a 28-foot aluminum boat with four family members when the boat capsized around 7 p.m. 16 miles west of the Homer Spit, reported television station KCEN-TV and newspaper the Anchorage Daily News. In October, a few months after their disappearance, an Alaska jury declared the family of four dead, reported the Anchorage Daily News. Wildlife troopers logged the family of four as missing, then in April, eight months later, more organizations offered to help with the search, including Support Vessels of Alaska, Vision Subsea, and Benthic Geoscience Inc. In early May, the group found a boat in 180 feet of water. The team used a remotely operated vehicle to identify it as the missing boat the family was on; also on the boat were 'potential human remains,' DPS said. On May 27 and May 28, volunteers from Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team and Alaska Wildlife Troopers took part in a diving operation and recovered three sets of remains from the sunken boat. The remains were taken to the state medical examiner's office for positive identification and autopsies. Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team said on social media that the team is searching for additional remains. 'Identification of the remains will be released by DPS once the medical examiner completes their work,' the team wrote in the post. The post did not say how long the process may take, but did confirm that next of kin had been notified. Mary and David Maynard's sons both played soccer and baseball, said Christi Wells, Mary Maynard's aunt, who gave the Anchorage Daily News a statement on behalf of Mary's parents last year. Mary was a traveling nurse and David was a stay-at-home dad with a lawn care business, Wells told the newspaper. A GoFundMe was started to support the missing family's loved ones and cover unexpected expenses. As of May 29, users have donated over $21,000. Tanashea Aviles, who started the GoFundMe, said the family was hoping to bring their loved ones home. 'This family is going through a lot right now,' Aviles wrote. Wells spoke to NBC News about the missing family shortly after their disappearance. She explained the family had been in Alaska for her son's wedding on July 27. "The whole family, they were just sweet people," Wells said at the time. "They were giving and loving people, and it's just a horrible tragedy, a horrible tragedy." — USA TODAY's Saleen Martin contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Maynard family from Texas believed to be found in Alaska: Police
USA Today
6 days ago
- USA Today
A family went missing in Alaska last year. A boat and human remains were just found.
A family went missing in Alaska last year. A boat and human remains were just found. Searchers have found a capsized boat along with human remains after a family went missing and was last seen in Alaska last year, officials have confirmed. 42-year-old David Maynard of Waco, Texas was on a boat with his wife, 37-year-old Mary, as well as their children, 11-year-old Colton and 8-year-old Brantley, when they went missing on Aug. 3, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, or DPS. They were boating in the Kachemak Bay near Homer, Alaska, southwest of Anchorage, DPS said. The U.S. Coast Guard searched for the family but eventually suspended the search. "The decision to suspend a search is never easy and involves the careful consideration of many factors including environmental conditions and search operations," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Shannon Kerney previously told USA TODAY. "Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends, and loved ones of the missing people during this unimaginably difficult time." According to DPS, the Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team tried to use sonar equipment to find the boat the family was on, but found nothing initially. The family was on a 28-foot aluminum boat with four family members when the boat capsized around 7 p.m. 16 miles west of the Homer Spit, reported television station KCEN-TV and newspaper the Anchorage Daily News. In October, a few months after their disappearance, an Alaska jury declared the family of four dead, reported the Anchorage Daily News. Capsized boat: At least 3 dead, 7 missing after small boat capsizes near San Diego Sunken boat found over 8 months after family went missing Wildlife troopers logged the family of four as missing, then in April, eight months later, more organizations offered to help with the search, including Support Vessels of Alaska, Vision Subsea, and Benthic Geoscience Inc. In early May, the group found a boat in 180 feet of water. The team used a remotely operated vehicle to identify it as the missing boat the family was on; also on the boat were 'potential human remains,' DPS said. On May 27 and May 28, volunteers from Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team and Alaska Wildlife Troopers took part in a diving operation and recovered three sets of remains from the sunken boat. The remains were taken to the state medical examiner's office for positive identification and autopsies. Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team said on social media that the team is searching for additional remains. 'Identification of the remains will be released by DPS once the medical examiner completes their work,' the team wrote. Remembering the Maynard family Mary and David Maynard's sons both played soccer and baseball, said Christi Wells, who gave the Anchorage Daily News a statement on behalf of Mary's parents. Mary was a traveling nurse and David was a stay-at-home dad with a lawn care business, Wells told the newspaper. A GoFundMe was started to support the missing family's loved ones and cover unexpected expenses. As of May 29, social media users have donated over $21,000. Tanashea Aviles, who started the GoFundMe, said the family was hoping to bring their loved ones home. 'This family is going through a lot right now,' Aviles wrote. Contributing: Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@
Miami Herald
22-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Teen's sexual assault kit sat untested for 27 years in Alaska. Now, man convicted
Three decades after a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted walking home from a friend's house, a man has been convicted, Alaska prosecutors say. A jury deliberated for two hours and found Ronald Fischer, of Xenia, Ohio, guilty of first-degree sexual assault after a weeklong trial, the State of Alaska Department of Law said in a May 21 Facebook post. 'We are thankful that a jury held Ronald Fischer accountable for this crime,' Assistant Attorney General Erin McCarthy said in the Facebook post. 'We hope the victim and her family can obtain some closure in light of this verdict.' The sexual assault As a 17-year-old girl walked home from a friend's house the early morning of Feb. 17, 1995, a man started to follow her, prosecutor said. He asked her 'where she was going,' 'then grabbed her by her hair and coat,' prosecutors said. The teenager freed herself from her coat and ran, prosecutors said. The man, however, grabbed by the hair again and 'dragged her to a fenced area behind a nearby restaurant,' according to prosecutors. 'The man forcibly sexually assaulted her,' prosecutors said. The teen then ran to a nearby building, the Anchorage Daily News building at the time, and 'asked a mail carrier for help,' according to prosecutors. The Anchorage Police Department investigated, and a sexual assault kit was collected as evidence, prosecutors said. It was not submitted for testing, though, and 'no suspect was identified,' prosecutors said. Kit tested decades later When the case was reopened in 2022, the 'sexual assault kit was tested as part of the Alaska Capital Project,' prosecutors said. To address the more than 3,000 untested sexual assault kits across the state found during a 2017 inventory, officials created the Capital Project and the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Project, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. 'These kits spanned three decades, and there were many reasons kits were not submitted for testing over the years,' officials said. Those include the testing not being needed for the immediate case or an officials' determination that a sexual assault investigation should not proceed for criminal charging, officials said. 'All of these decisions were made based on individual cases, and not necessarily with the potential impact on other cases in mind,' officials said. The unknown man's DNA from the 1995 case was run in the Combined DNA Index System, 'a computer software program that operates local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons,' according to federal prosecutors. It found Fischer's DNA profile to be a match, state prosecutors said. Investigators confirmed the match by comparing a DNA sample from Fischer to that of the unknown man, prosecutors said. The woman from the assault was shown a lineup of suspects that included Fischer's photo, prosecutors said. 'She was able to identify him as her assailant nearly three decades after the sexual assault,' according to prosecutors said. Fischer, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 26, prosecutors said. Per sentencing laws in place in 1995 pertaining to first-degree sexual assault convictions, Fischer could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Boston Globe
18-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Dan Seavey, musher who helped create Alaska's epic Iditarod, dies at 87
Advertisement The idea for the Iditarod race began with a handful of adventurous souls and a mostly forgotten trail, which was used in the early 20th century by gold prospectors and settlers. The use of dogsled teams was later eclipsed by planes and snowmobiles. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Then in the 1960s, some dogsled events were held along segments of the trail. As Mr. Seavey and others planned a competition along the complete route, more than a few critics wondered if the risks were just too high. 'They questioned in front of me the wisdom of even going on that first race,' he told KTUU television in Anchorage. Another of the race organizers, Joe Redington Sr., took out a second mortgage on his house to help fund the event. In early March 1973, 34 dogsledders - including Mr. Seavey - set out from Anchorage. Alaskan newspapers gave front-page coverage as the mushers passed near towns and as word came that others had dropped out. Advertisement Mr. Seavey carried a tape recorder to capture his thoughts and accounts, which were saved and later used in his book 'The First Great Race' (2013). When not using the recorder, Mr. Seavey stashed the batteries in his parka to keep them from freezing. His 12-dog team included a lead dog, Genghis, and others with names such as Koyuk, Snippy, and Crazy. 'Those wonders of God's creation,' he wrote, 'who weathered Arctic gales, slept in snowbanks, suffered exhaustion, sore, raw feet and, to some degree, human ignorance and neglect.' He also had aboard his sled 350 souvenir letters sold for $1 each with plans to mail them from Nome. 'If I make it,' he added. He and 21 other teams did. Mr. Seavey finished third in 20 days, 14 hours and 35 minutes - about a half-day behind the winner. (Current winners finish in less than 10 days.) The finish line was improvised by pouring Kool-Aid in the snow. 'We were wandering around in the wilderness, lost, for some of the time out there,' he said in a 2022 interview with the Anchorage Daily News. 'Whatever it took to get to Nome.' Mr. Seavey took part in the race four more times, the last in 2012 at age 74. He finished 50th in 13 days, 19 hours and 10 minutes. His grandson Dallas Seavey won that race in 9 days, 4 hours, and 29 minutes in the first of his six victories. Mr. Seavey's son Mitch has won the Iditarod three times. Advertisement Once asked to describe his most harrowing moment on the Iditarod, Mr. Seavey recounted crossing a river in the 1974 race outside of the abandoned roadhouse site at Rohn, three days into the trek. The ice began to buckle. 'I was wondering to myself if we were going to go all the way through,' he was quoted as saying on the Iditarod website. The numbing-cold water was at his knees. 'The dogs were sinking pretty deep, too,' he said. 'Some of my smaller dogs might have been doing the doggy paddle at that point.' They managed to reach the other side, only to find a group of bison on the banks. 'As we started running again, the buffalo ran with us,' he recalled. 'They ran in front for a good mile and a half, and we just followed right behind. Then they just disappeared, and we kept going for a bit until I found a good place to set up camp and build a fire.' For Mr. Seavey, the Iditarod was never fully about the race, he often said. He saw it more as an immersion into Alaska's past, which he began to explore in the 1960s as a history teacher newly arrived from Minnesota. The lore and significance of the trail, in Mr. Seavey's view, was being slowly lost at the time. The memories included a 1925 dog team run of serum to Nome along part of the trail during a diphtheria outbreak. A statue of a lead dog in that medical mission, Balto, was erected in Manhattan's Central Park. 'Even the word 'Iditarod' was lost,' Mr. Seavey told the St. Cloud Times in 2014. 'A lot of people, I guess me, too, didn't even know how to pronounce the word. There was a reeducation process that had to go on.' Advertisement The inaugural Iditarod, Mr. Seavey said, was an attempt to rebuild a tangible connection with the trail, which takes its name from a central Alaskan outpost (now abandoned) that was the site of the last major Alaskan gold rush in 1909. He playfully dubbed the first race 'a great camping trip.' Five years later, the Iditarod Trail was designated a National Historic Trail. (The race now uses alternating starting points depending on the year.) 'You might be interested in history of the game of tennis, but can you really know what tennis is all about unless you at least try to play it?' Mr. Seavey once said. 'To me, physical experience is most important in learning about something.' 'You can talk about a segment of the trail being used,' he added, 'but unless you run a team down the Yukon from Ruby to Kaltag, it's just an academic exercise.' Mr. Seavey joined his grandson Tyrell Seavey on a sled behind Dan Freitas on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, during the 2005 ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Al Grillo/Associated Press Daniel Blake Seavey was born in Deerwood, Minn., on Aug. 19, 1937. His father worked in iron mines, and both of his parents helped run the family farm. As a child, Mr. Seavey imagined Far North adventures while listening to the radio drama 'The Challenge of the Yukon,' later known as 'Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,' about battling wrongdoers during the Gold Rush. In 1961, he received a teaching degree from St. Cloud State College (now St. Cloud State University) and two years later headed for Alaska with his wife, the former Shirley Anderson. They met years earlier when Mr. Seavey was 19 and working a summer job as a carnival wrestler. Advertisement In Seward, Mr. Seavey was hired to teach high school history. The family later built a homestead - originally with no electricity or indoor plumbing - following a devastating 1964 earthquake and tsunami that hit southern Alaska and claimed more than 130 lives from Canada to Hawaii. At the family cabin, Mr. Seavey began to acquire and train sled dogs. Mr. Seavey later served on the board of groups including the Iditarod Trail Committee and the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance. He retired from teaching in 1984. 'I admit to being a hardcore Iditarod junkie,' he said. As climate change brings warmer winters to Alaska, the Iditarod has been forced to adapt by shifting the starting line farther inland from coastal Anchorage and diverting the route from thinning sea ice near Nome. His wife of 59 years, Shirley Seavey, died in 2017. He leaves three children; 10 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and a brother. In November 1973, about 10 months after the first Iditarod, Mr. Seavey posted a classified ad in the Anchorage Daily News to announce that dogs from his sled team had puppies. 'For sale,' the ad said, 'endurance race sled dogs.'
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Loose dog may have been factor in fatal plane crash in rural Alaska, reports say
A dog on the loose may have contributed to a deadly plane crash in Alaska, reports say. A pup was seen on a runway at an airstrip in Nanwalek as a Cessna headed in on April 28, KTUU reported, citing Clint Johnson of the National Transportation Safety Board. 'The pilot initiated a go-around,' Johnson told the outlet. 'There was also another company airplane behind — he was talking to that airplane at the same time — said he was initiating the go-around, made a right turn away from the runway, pretty steep climb, and unfortunately, there was a loss of control.' Johnson described it to the Anchorage Daily News 'as a 'loss of control consistent with a stall.'' The Cessna T207 went into water at the runway's end, the Federal Aviation Administration reported. Good Samaritans and first responders rushed to help, according to Alaska State Troopers, who said pilot Daniel Bunker, 48, from Homer, and passenger Jenny Miller, 37, from Anchorage, were killed. A second passenger – an adult man – was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, according to troopers. Johnson told Alaska Public Media that animals are 'a peril that you have to contend with' in rural areas, but he said he couldn't think of another crash where an animal may have similarly contributed, the outlet reported. Bunker was flying the plane for Smokey Bay Air, according to the FAA. McClatchy News reached out to the company April 30 and was awaiting a response. In a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said 'the First Lady and I are heartbroken by the tragic plane crash near Nanwalek. We send our deepest condolences to the families of Daniel Bunker and Jenny Miller, and we're praying for the recovery of the injured passenger.' Nanwalek is southwest of Homer.
