Spectacular Murder, Media Circus

“What Happened in Craig” A spectacular murder lures the news hounds like no other. Even at Ben’s Cove, where the scene investigation progressed, the troopers had been fighting them off. At lunch one day, a boat showed up armed with microphones and video cameras. The troopers shooed them off. The next day, their relatives saw them on CNN.

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Craig, Fish Egg Island & Ben’s Cove (Apple Maps; illustration Leland E. Hale)

If the news reports reflected anything, however, it was the confusion of the early investigation. Lacking hard facts, it seemed that some reporters were more than willing to fill in the details. One of the more persistent rumors fanned by the electronic media, for example, was that the Coulthurst’s had been killed execution-style. The evidence pointed in the opposite direction. Mark and Irene were found collapsed upon each other in the galley. Everyone else had been found in or near their bunks. More than anything, this seemed like a crime of anger — and surprise. Perhaps that wasn’t spectacular enough.

The false reports and rumors were starting to have an impact, however. Sergeant Stogsdill, for one, had begun to express his displeasure with the news coverage of the investigation. As he shoveled and sifted at the Investor scene, he grumbled about the newsmedia presence. How did they seem to know about everything being done in Craig? And what were the details of this case doing on CNN? Somehow, it didn’t seem right that people in Miami knew as much about the case as he did. And why were they talking about “execution-style murders?”

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Sgt. Jim Stogsdill, AST

Lieutenant John Shover, the unit supervisor in Anchorage who was ultimately in charge of the investigation, was finally forced to issue a denial. He said rumors that the Coulthursts were killed execution-style were untrue. The bullet wounds, he said, were not in the backs of their heads. And, he added, it did not appear that they had been lined up and shot. “Bizarre as this thing is,” he said, “we have much to establish about basic matters, such as motive.”


Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.”

Copyright Leland E. Hale (2018). All rights reserved.


Craig

Order “What Happened In Craig,” HERE and HERE. True crime from Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder.

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