Episodes

Sitka, Alaska We all know married couples who seem to thrive on discord. These are the people we avoid joining for dinner and the ones in whose presence we squirm as they argue, yell, and threaten. We wonder why they got married, and if they divorce, we’re certain no one else would want either one of them. Still, I’ve met couples who not only manage to survive their contentious relationships but enjoy sparring with their partners. Marriage is hard, but most of us try, at least for a while, to ma...

On March 22, 1990, the Aleutian Enterprise, a one-hundred-and-forty-three-foot factory trawler, rolled over and sank in the Bering Sea. Nine crew members died, and twenty-two others barely escaped. The incident happened because the owners and managers of Arctic Alaska Seafood put profits above safety and the crew’s lives on their processing ships. Their actions – or inactions – were nothing short of murder. ________________ Take a trip to Shuyak Island _______________________ Join the Readers...

On November 12th, 2015, Peter, the Island Air, mail-plane pilot, landed at Port William Wilderness Lodge on Shuyak Island. The lodge occupies an old cannery, and Peter found this stop memorable because instead of both of the lodge’s caretakers greeting him, as usual, only one caretaker, 44-year-old Steven Ridenour, met the plane. Peter wondered why the other caretaker, Steven McCaulley, 56, also did not arrive to help unload the freight. Since the tide was high, the plane could not pull up to th...

On January 23, 1959, ten hikers embarked on a wilderness hiking/skiing expedition into the Ural Mountains in the Eastern Soviet Union. Most of the hikers were students at Sverdlovsk’s Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI). One of the hikers began to feel ill and left the group early, but when the remaining nine hikers did not return to the Institute by February 20, searchers began looking for them. Their horrific discovery persists as one of the great mysteries of the northern wilderness. __________...

A family moved to a small Alaska village because the parents believed it would be a safe environment where they could raise their children. Then, the unthinkable happened. Eleven-year-old Mandy Lemaire only had to walk a short distance to her girlfriend’s house, but when she didn’t arrive, the entire village began searching for her. ___________________ ___________________ https://youtu.be/7Fv52Bf8yfY ___________________ Join the Last Frontier Club’s Free Tier ______ Robin Barefield lives ...

A ghost ship is an adrift vessel with no living passengers or crew aboard. Sometimes, we know why the ship was abandoned or what tragedy occurred to the passengers and crew, but other times, we are left to guess what happened aboard the vessel during the last few hours and minutes when the crew inexplicably abandoned the ship or died aboard it. Alaska has many ghostship tales. Here are three of them. Clara Nevada Sources Levi, Steven. The Clara Nevada; Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside P...

It took a horrible murder for Alaska to revise its statutes for the criminally insane from some of the most lenient sentencing laws in the country to the strictest laws in the U.S. for the insanity defense. On the night of May 3, 1982, one veteran Anchorage police officer was quoted as saying, “This has got to be one of the grisliest nights I’ve ever seen.” Within an hour, seven people lost their lives. Three died in the Black Bull bar in the Muldoon section of Anchorage, and the other four wer...

When a fifty-two-year-old traveling nurse disappeared in Anchorage in 2001, the authorities showed little interest, and the Anchorage Police Department said they did not have available detectives to investigate the case. If the authorities had taken his disappearance more seriously, perhaps we would know the answer to the question: What happened to Thomas Nuzzi? Sources “Missing Person Thomas Anthony Nuzzi.” nd. Alaska State Troopers Department of Public Safety. “Nuzzi, Thomas June 2021.” Augu...

Mt. Iliamna is an active cone-shaped volcano located one hundred and forty miles (225 km) southwest of Anchorage and seventy miles (113 km) northwest of Homer. It is part of the Chigmit Mountains and rises from its base near Cook Inlet to 10,016 feet (3052.9 m), one of the highest peaks in the volcanically active area of the Alaska Peninsula. Ten glaciers radiate from the volcano’s slopes. Iliamna last erupted in 1867, and observers have occasionally seen smoke wafting from the summit since the...

I can’t imagine the agony of losing a child for any reason, but how does a mother cope when she learns someone murdered her daughter, and she knows terror and pain must have marked the last moments of her child’s life? The book Justice for Bonnie deals with this issue. The well-written book profiles a mother’s fight to learn the truth about what happened to her daughter. Kenneth Dion Anchorage Daily News Sources: To read more about Bonnie Craig and her mother’s fight for justice, I highly reco...

On the morning of October 7, 2010, Lisa Donlon dialed 911 and told the dispatcher she had just shot and killed her husband. When the police arrived at the twenty-foot by twenty-foot, one-room shed where Lisa lived with her husband, Jason, and their three young sons, they found Jason lying in bed on his stomach. Lisa had shot him once in the head and five times in the back. She claimed she’d killed him in self-defense while he slept. Her two youngest sons were present in the cabin when their moth...

Most of us like to believe we can trust the police, but not everyone goes into law enforcement for the greater good. Some enter the police academy because they crave power over others and what better job than policing offers this power? I believe most police officers are good, and a few are bullies. John Patrick Addis, though, was the worst kind of police officer. He was a monster with a badge. Sources Puitt, Glenn. Ghost: The True Story of One Man’s Descent into Madness and Murder Zekan, Kare...

Nineteen years after his son disappeared while climbing Mt. Denali in Alaska, Guy Waterman ascended a mountain ridge in New Hampshire in February 2000 and committed suicide by sitting in the snow in the bitter cold until he froze to death. The life stories of both Guy and Johnny Waterman exemplify the narrow line between passion and madness. Sources Brown, Chip. March 2003. The Last Cairn. Adventure. Brown, Chip. June 2000. “Much About This World”: The Life and Death of Guy Waterman Krakauer,...

With landmarks bearing the names of Deadmen Valley, Headless Creek, Funeral Range, and Hell’s Gate Rapids, you might think twice before planning a trip to Nahanni National Park in Canada. However, the legends behind these names make the park even more daunting. Sources Berge, Chloe. “The haunting history of this Canadian National Park.” March 9, 2020. Fodors.com. Malbeuf, Jamie. “Families call for case of mysterious 2005 deaths to be reopened.” May 7, 2018. CBS News. Peters, Hammerson. Legen...

When Bethany Correira disappeared, the residents of her hometown of Talkeetna, Alaska, immediately responded to search for one of their own. Sources Klinkhart, Gle nn. 2014. Finding Bethany. A True Crime Memoir. Securus Media. James, Daid. 2014. ‘Finding Bethany’ details detective’s quest to solve horrific murder Mystery at Bootlegger’s Cove. Dateline. NBC. Johnson, Greg. 2-2008. Lawson draws 99 years. MatSu Valley Frontiersman. ________________ Take a trip to the wilderness of Alaska–if ...

Most people understand they face the risk of encountering wild animals when they enter the woods in Alaska, but they do not expect someone to shoot them. When a series of murders occurred in parks and on trails near Anchorage in the summer of 2016, residents demanded more information from the police. Were the murders related to each other? Was a serial killer stalking the city? Was it safe to go hiking after dark? And what were the police doing to solve these murders? Police remained tight-lippe...

When testifying at his trial, Teddy Kyle Smith said he thought he was shooting Enukins in self-defense when he fired his rifle at Chuck and Paul Buckel. Few believed him, but his testimony highlighted the inequalities of jury selection in rural Alaska. Sources My primary source for this article was the Audible Original production of Midnight Son by James Dommek Jr. I highly recommend this three-hour audiobook. James Dommek Jr. does a fantastic job of telling this story from the viewpoint of a ...

Mechele Hughes-Linehan When a beautiful, intelligent, young woman pitted her three fiancés against each other, someone would die. Sources Brennan, Tom. 2015. Dead Man’s Dancer. Epicenter Press. Kent https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mans-Dancer-Mechele-Linehan/dp/1935347160/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Dead+Man%27s+Dancer%2C+Tom+Brennan&qid=1591316098&s=books&sr=1-1 Mechele K. Linehan. Murderpedia. https://murderpedia.org/female.L/l/linehan-mechele.htm Former Olympia mom wins appeal in Alaska mur...

Alaska has spawned a long list of serial killers from the gold rush era in the early 1900s to the present day. Is Brian Steven Smith the latest member of this notorious fraternity? I did an episode on this case several months ago, but a great deal has happened with it since then. Smith’s first two murder cases have moved through the court system, and the police have released information suggesting he has more victims. Sources Batts, Amber. “Anchorage police ignored warnings, let Brian Steven ...

Alaska’s slogan is the “Last Frontier.” To some people, this means Alaska is the Wild West, a place with less law and order where they can live as they choose. The man who called himself Papa Pilgrim believed moving his family to the wilderness of Alaska would offer him the opportunity to do anything he wanted. Papa Pilgrim was the worst kind of hypocrite because he hid his crimes behind his religious zeal. Like a charismatic cult leader, Pilgrim could appear charming and persuasive in public, b...

When a shooting at a precious metals and coin shop in Anchorage left three men dead, the two survivors claimed the other one was responsible. It took six years, two trials, and more than one thousand pieces of evidence for a jury to unravel the whodunnit and decide which survivor was a murderer and which was another victim. Sources “Anchorage man gets 300-year sentence for 2017 triple murder in gold shop.” May 24, 2024. Anchorage Daily News. Andrews, Lisa Demer Laurel. “With 35 homicides in 2...

Neil Mackay was ruthless in both his personal and business dealings, and associates learned not to cross him. When a car bomb instantly killed his ex-wife, Muriel Pfeil, police knew Mackay had planned her murder, but they could not find enough evidence to charge him with the crime. Sources: Associated Press. “Jury acquits Mackay of murder.” February 7, 1988. Brennan, Tom. Cold Crime. Chapter 10: “An angry man.” 2005. Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press. “Dynamite expected in car bomb killing.” Octo...

Mt. Iliamna is an active cone-shaped volcano located one hundred and forty miles (225 km) southwest of Anchorage and seventy miles (113 km) northwest of Homer. It is part of the Chigmit Mountains and rises from its base near Cook Inlet to 10,016 feet (3052.9 m), one of the highest peaks in the volcanically active area of the Alaska Peninsula. Ten glaciers radiate from the volcano’s slopes. Iliamna last erupted in 1867, and observers have occasionally seen smoke wafting from the summit since the...

In 1988, forty-four commercial fishermen died at sea near Kodiak, Alaska, making it the deadliest fishing year on record. That year, fishermen also earned $2.40 per pound for sockeye salmon, the highest price ever paid to fishermen for sockeye salmon before or since. Commercial fishing proved lucrative but dangerous in 1988. Alaska fishermen know their jobs involve risk. They work on the North Pacific, often in big seas and brutal weather, but no fisherman expects to be murdered by his crewman....