One of the most vexing questions concerning the Investor murders is among its most fundamental: how did someone manage to kill all those people with only a single-shot .22 rifle? As the trooper investigation unfolded in Craig, one early theory began to emerge. This theory was recently reiterated by Dave Kiffer, who at the time was a young journalist working for the Ketchikan Daily News.
I spoke with Dave at the Ketchikan Public Library on Thursday, November 15, 2018 (at a reading co-sponsored by his wife, Charlotte Glover, who owns Parnassas Books). Dave wrote about the Investor murders during the first two years of the case, then left Alaska for a brief detour to graduate school on the east coast. He had an advantage: he was a local reporter and a lifelong resident with local contacts. He still lives in Ketchikan and is an active participant in civic affairs, having served on the City Council and as Borough Mayor. In other words, Dave’s got cred.
In Dave’s telling, the earliest theory to emerge was that the Investor killer picked off the crew one-by-one as they returned to the vessel after a night of carousing.
It is an attractive theory that explains how one person — alone — was able to face down at least five young, in-shape victims. In an alternate reality, there was more than one person involved — on the notion that subduing five crewmembers was impossible. Here’s the rub: on two successive days, including the day of the fire, multiple witnesses saw the Investor skiff coming into Craig.
Only one person was on that skiff.
Here are some insights from Dave Kiffer’s 2006 article in SitNews, “A Look Back At Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder.” Thanks, Dave!
“The Investor had pulled into Craig on Sunday, Sept. 5th after unloading more than 77,000 pounds of pink salmon to a Holbeck Seafoods tender… [She] tied up next to the seiner Decade at the North Cove Dock in Craig. The Decade was in turn tied to the seiner Defiant. Witnesses say that [crewmembers] Moon and Keown went ashore shortly thereafter… [Crewmembers] Stewart and Heyman apparently also left the boat together, although no one in Craig remembers seeing them in town that night…
“Meanwhile, the four Coulthurst family members celebrated Mark’s 28th birthday at Ruth Ann’s. Skippers from both the Decade and Defiance [sic] were also at the restaurant and noticed nothing unusual…
“The Coulthursts left the restaurant around 9:30 pm. A crewman on the Decade says that sometime around 10:30 pm, four-year-old John Coulthurst stuck his head inside the pilot house of the Decade to say “hi” to a crewman he’d played with earlier in the day…
“Investigators surmise that the crew members were killed one or two at a time as they returned to the ship Sunday, but with so much of the physical evidence destroyed by the fire it is not possible to be sure.”
Order “What Happened In Craig,” HERE and HERE. True crime from Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder.