Newly released testimony from the presumptive death trial of the Maynard family, the Texas family who went missing during an early August boating trip in Alaska, has unveiled harrowing details about what were likely the family’s final moments.
David and Mary Maynard, along with their young children Colton, 11, and Brantley, 7, are presumed to have drowned after the fishing boat they were sharing with an Alaskan family capsized off the coast of Homer, Alaska. Alea Perkovich, a survivor from the Alaskan family, recounted the terrifying events in a Homer courtroom last month. Her husband Weston Perkovich, the captain of the 28-foot aluminum vessel, their children, and the Maynard family were all aboard when tragedy struck on August 3rd.
The Maynard family’s disappearance prompted Mary Maynard’s mother, Charlotte Huckaby, to request a jury declaration of death for her family members. The legal proceedings are ongoing as the jury considers the evidence presented.
Perkovich’s emotional testimony painted a vivid picture of the rapid escalation of events leading to the boat’s sinking. “We were fishing… for probably about two hours, [when] the boat started taking on water,” she stated, her voice breaking. She described her husband, Weston, frantically trying to manage the situation, “[Weston] was going back and forth between the captain’s seat and the engines and the back, and he said, ‘OK, call the Coast Guard.’” It was at this point that David Maynard began to make the crucial call for help.
In a poignant exchange, Perkovich recalled a brief conversation with Mary Maynard amidst the unfolding crisis. “Mary [Maynard] walked between the two of us to where the radio hung. And I said, ‘Are you afraid?’” Perkovich testified. “And she said, ‘Yes, this is going over.’ And she buckled the last buckle of her life jacket…and she handed me the radio.” This chilling moment underscores the gravity of the situation as Mary Maynard seemingly sensed the impending disaster.
Perkovich then detailed her mayday call, relaying their last known coordinates. The transition from a peaceful fishing trip to a life-threatening emergency was shockingly swift. “It was 10 minutes, maybe 10 minutes from us having fun to the boat … rolled like this to its side, and then the engines went down and just the nose up.” The speed at which the boat capsized left little time for reaction or escape.
Desperate to save her children, Perkovich acted quickly. “I just finished the coordinates into the radio, and I dropped it and turned and then I thought it was going to be looking at my window, which was open, but it was above me,” Perkovich explained, highlighting the boat’s dramatic tilt. She managed to hand her daughter out of the cabin window to Weston, who then placed the child in the dinghy. However, in the chaos, the dinghy rope was dropped, and their daughter began to drift away. “[Weston] … fell off the side. I now know he had to go get the rope, because he dropped the rope to the dinghy. So [our daughter] was just floating away with the current.”
Once his own family was in the relative safety of the dinghy, Perkovich witnessed the final moments of the fishing vessel. “And by that time, there was nothing but the neck, I mean, the very, very nose of the boat up, and we were so far away from it… and it never came up. It just never came out,” she recounted, expressing the lingering uncertainty and unanswered questions surrounding the rapid sinking. “I don’t know what happened. We don’t know what happened.”
Weston Gilmore, referred to as Weston Perkovich in the original article, also provided crucial testimony. He explained that the initial plan was to troll near Seldovia, but equipment malfunctions led them to change course for halibut fishing northwest of their location. After anchoring, the group enjoyed a seemingly normal afternoon. “We broke out [a] little gas grill, camping grill, and we were just hanging out and fishing and cooking hot dogs and burgers,” Gilmore testified, emphasizing the normalcy of the early part of their fishing trip.
However, the situation took a turn when David Maynard noticed something amiss. “David Maynard pointed out some standing water near a weep or drain hole,” Gilmore recalled. Recognizing this as an abnormal sign, Gilmore decided to start the engines and move the boat. But disaster struck when the engines failed to start. “Engines never started, and I ended up getting up from the wheel, and I went back out on deck, and there was more, the water level was coming up,” Gilmore explained.
The realization that the hull was rapidly filling with water set in. “I pulled the back hatch down low, where there was a fuel tank. And when I did that… the tank kind of floated up,” Gilmore stated, indicating the extent of the flooding. “The hull was full of water, and so I dropped it and instantly turned back, and I darted back into the cabin.” After a final failed attempt to start the engines, Gilmore instructed everyone to don life jackets and proceeded to prepare the lifeboat.
After ensuring his family was in the dinghy, Gilmore bravely returned to the sinking vessel in a desperate attempt to rescue the Maynard family. “As I got to it, it had just went beneath the water level, but I still put an arm in there,” he recounted. In a heartbreaking detail, he described reaching into the submerged cabin, “I ended up grabbing the leg of our dog that was in the V berth.” The rapidly sinking boat and the imminent danger forced him to retreat. “The bow railing was coming down at him, so he had to push away from the boat and head back to the dinghy.”
Overwhelmed and in shock, Gilmore could only process the immediate aftermath. “[I] didn’t see any people. And at that point, I was just kind of trying to, I don’t know, just process what just happened.” Fortunately, a civilian vessel responding to the mayday call arrived and rescued Gilmore, Perkovich, and their children. Gilmore’s last glimpse of the Maynards was when he left the cabin to prepare the dinghy, highlighting the sudden and irreversible nature of the tragedy.
U.S. Coast Guard Commander Christopher Svencer, the search and rescue mission coordinator, testified that the mayday call was received around 6 p.m., initiating a 24-hour search operation. Despite extensive efforts, the Maynards were not found. “During that time, we received a report from one of the survivors that when they were getting off the vessel, they saw it go down with the Maynards on board… and we did not see them exit the cabin,” Svencer stated, explaining the grim circumstances that informed the search strategy.
The Coast Guard utilized a “probability of survival decision aid” to estimate the potential survival time in the frigid Alaskan waters. Svencer explained that the tool estimated a functional survival time of seven hours and a cold survival time of about ten hours from the time they entered the water. Considering these factors, the extensive search efforts, and the lack of any sightings of the Maynards, the Coast Guard made the difficult decision to suspend the search at approximately 6 p.m. on August 4th. In total, 1,236 nautical miles of track line were searched, covering 1,420 square nautical miles.
Judge Bride Seifert presided over the presumptive death hearing in Homer on September 19th, explaining to the jurors the legal context of the proceedings. “A presumptive death hearing is a court hearing… when people have disappeared, and after a diligent search, cannot be found, and… the circumstances surrounding the disappearance afford reasonable grounds for the belief that the person has suffered death from accidental or other means,” Judge Seifert stated.
In the wake of this devastating tragedy, a GoFundMe account was established to support the Maynard family with unexpected expenses. The community response has been overwhelming, with donations exceeding the initial $15,000 goal and surpassing $21,000, demonstrating the widespread sympathy and support for the Maynard Family Alaska.
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