What About the Witness Composite Sketches?

By September 14, 1982, troopers had three composite sketches taken from witnesses who saw the skiffman leaving the Investor. That date was, to be exact, eight days after she was taken to Ben’s Cove to be scuttled. Eight days after the fleet left Craig on their way to the last opening, on Tuesday, September 6th. And a full week after the boat fire.

It was better than nothing. Trooper Anderson started making the rounds in Craig — and across Prince of Wales Island — looking for anyone who’d seen someone resembling the composite sketches. He came up empty-handed.

composite
Alaska State Trooper composite (courtesy AST)

Troopers also sent out a flyer with a questionnaire — and the composite — throughout the fishing fleet. They received hundreds of responses and some leads worth following.

The next big bump in coverage came when veteran journalist Sheila Toomey wrote an in-depth article for Alaska Fisherman’s Journal, one of the top publications covering Alaska’s commercial fishing industry. In it, she carefully walked through the trooper theories about whodunit. The composite sketches got their widest distribution yet.

composite
Click to enlarge

composite
Click to enlarge

Toomey’s readers were treated to the troopers’ detailed reconstruction of the Investor crew’s last night. It was a night typical of the end of any fishing season. By late Saturday night, according to Toomey’s reporting, parties were underway at the North Cove dock where the Investor was moored. As far as anyone could tell, she was empty.

“On the Defiant, the boat tied closest to the dock, everyone is having a good time, but the mood is comparatively sedate,” Toomey reported. “They are making ice cream.”

“On the other hand, the crew of the boat tied to the Investor, the Decade, is getting down to serious drinking.”

The money quote in Toomey’s article belongs to Sgt. Chuck Miller’s assessment of the skiffman (and presumed killer):

“Down at the end of that dock is a time warp that he slips into. We just can’t find him.”

Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale.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 (2019). 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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