Tag Archives: F/V Investor murders
The Alaskan Mass Murder Thats Remained Unsolved For More Than 30 Years
In 1982, the F/V Investor, a commercial fishing boat, was set ablaze on an island near Craig, a remote fishing village in Southeast Alaska. The charred remains of eight people were later found onboard: The boat’s owner, Mark Coulthurst, his pregnant wife, Irene, their two young children, and four deckhands; all shot and killed before the boat was burned. By 1984, John Kenneth Peel, a boatyard worker, was arrested for the crime, but later acquitted. Speaking with People in 2017, David McNeill, a former Washington state police detective involved in the investigation, said this is less an indication of innocence than a prosecutorial failure to present sufficient evidence against Peel. >click to read< 09:10
‘What Happened in Craig’: Trying to piece together one of the state’s most perplexing murder mysteries
Leland Hale, along with his late coauthor Walter Gilmour, is known for writing the book “Butcher, Baker” about Anchorage serial killer Robert Hanson in the 1970s and early-’80s, which more recently was made into a movie. And Hale went back to 1980s Alaska for the subject of his new book, “What Happened in Craig?”, out this week.,, HALE: Let’s set the scene. It’s in September. It’s the end of the fishing season in Southeast Alaska. There’s a little town called Craig. There’s about a hundred fishing boats in town. So now the population has doubled and people are out celebrating because the fishing seasons over. They’ve made their money and one of the vessels there is actually from Blaine, Washington. >click to read<20:58
8 killed in 1982 F/V Investor murders remembered in Blaine exhibit
Does the time ever come when a community stops remembering a murdered group of its own? In the case of Blaine, possibly not. Almost 34 years ago, a Blaine fishing family, including two children, and four young crewmen were killed aboard the Investor, a purse seiner found ablaze Sept. 7, 1982, near Craig, a fishing village in Southeast Alaska. A Bellingham resident, John Peel, was later tried twice for the slayings. His first trial ended in a hung jury; his second trial acquitted him. The Investor remains the biggest unresolved murder case in Alaska history. Read the rest here 15:05
