The harrowing final moments of the Maynard family, a family from Texas who went missing during an early August boating trip in Alaska, have been revealed in newly released testimony from their presumptive death trial. The tragic incident, which occurred off the coast of Homer, Alaska, is believed to have resulted in the drowning of David Maynard, 42; Mary Maynard, 37; Colton Maynard, 11; and Brantley Maynard, 7.
The Maynards were aboard a 28-foot aluminum fishing vessel with an Alaskan family of four when disaster struck on August 3rd. Alea Perkovich, a survivor from the Alaskan family, recounted the terrifying events in a Homer courtroom last month. Her husband, Weston Perkovich, was the captain of the vessel, and they were accompanied by their two children.
“We were fishing… probably about two hours, [when] the boat started taking on water,” Alea Perkovich testified, her voice filled with emotion.
The legal proceedings are part of a request by Charlotte Huckaby, Mary Maynard’s mother, to have her family members legally declared dead. A jury is currently deliberating on this request, according to court officials.
Recounting the escalating emergency, Perkovich described the frantic moments as water flooded the boat. “[Weston] was going back and forth… and he said, ‘OK, call the Coast Guard,’” she said. “So David [Maynard] got on his phone.”
In a poignant detail from the unfolding tragedy, Perkovich recalled Mary Maynard’s final actions. “Mary [Maynard] walked between the two of us… And I said, ‘Are you afraid?’” Perkovich shared. “And she said, ‘Yes, this is going over.’ And she buckled the last buckle of her life jacket, and she handed me the radio.”
Perkovich made the mayday call, relaying the boat’s coordinates in a desperate plea for help. The transition from a peaceful fishing trip to a life-threatening emergency was shockingly rapid. “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 of the sinking was terrifying. “I just finished the coordinates… 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, emphasizing the suddenness of the capsizing.
With her children close, Perkovich acted swiftly, handing her daughter to Weston through the cabin window and into the dinghy. Weston, in his efforts to secure the lifeboat, fell into the water himself. “[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 her family was safely in the dinghy, Perkovich witnessed the vessel disappear beneath the waves. “And by that time, there was nothing but the neck, I mean, the very, very nose of the boat up… and it never came up. It just never came out,” she said, highlighting the finality of the sinking and the unanswered questions surrounding the disaster. “I don’t know what happened. We don’t know what happened.”
Weston Gilmore also provided testimony, detailing the events leading up to the sinking. He explained that initial plans to troll near Seldovia were disrupted by downrigger issues. The group then shifted to halibut fishing northwest of their initial location, anchoring and preparing to fish.
“We broke out little gas grill, camping grill, and we were just hanging out and fishing and cooking hot dogs and burgers,” Gilmore recounted, painting a picture of a normal, enjoyable outing just before tragedy struck.
It was David Maynard who first noticed the alarming sign of standing water near a drain hole. Gilmore recognized this as abnormal and decided to start the engines and move. “But 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, describing the rapidly worsening situation.
Gilmore’s attempt to investigate further revealed the dire situation. “I pulled the back hatch down low… And when I did that… the tank kind of floated up,” he said. “The hull was full of water… and instantly turned back, and I darted back into the cabin.”
Despite further attempts, the engines failed to start. Gilmore then instructed everyone to don life jackets and went to deploy the lifeboat. After ensuring his family was in the dinghy, Gilmore returned to the sinking vessel in a desperate attempt to help 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 recalled, his voice heavy with emotion. “I had a hold of the boat with my left hand… face on the water as far as I could reach without going under. And I was flailing my arm around inside, just trying to touch something. I ended up grabbing the leg of our dog…”
Forced to retreat as the boat fully submerged, Gilmore and his family could only watch as debris floated to the surface. “I just laid back… and realized that there was one of the coolers and some other miscellaneous stuff was floating around,” Gilmore said. “[I] didn’t see any people. And at that point, I was just kind of trying to… process what just happened.”
Responding to the mayday call, a civilian vessel arrived and rescued the Gilmores and Perkovichs. Gilmore’s last glimpse of the Maynard family was when he left the cabin to prepare the dinghy.
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.
“During that time… they saw it go down with the Maynards on board… and we did not see them exit the cabin,” Svencer stated, explaining the basis for the extensive search efforts.
The Coast Guard utilized survival probability tools to guide their search. “What we look at is… how long we should be searching for any sort of survivors. To do that… we use what we call the probability of survival decision aid.”
Based on these tools, the estimated functional survival time was seven hours, and cold survival time was approximately ten hours. “[Those times] would be from when the people in the water entered at about 6 p.m. the night before [Aug. 3]… led us to concluding our searches at approximately [6 p.m. on Aug. 4].”
Commander Svencer confirmed the extensive scope of the search, covering 1,236 nautical miles of track line and 1,420 square nautical miles of area. Despite these efforts, the Coast Guard made the “very difficult decision” to suspend the search after approximately 24 hours.
Judge Bride Seifert clarified the purpose of the legal proceedings for the jury: “A presumptive death hearing is a court hearing… when people have disappeared, and after a diligent search, cannot be found… that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance afford reasonable grounds for the belief that the person has suffered death from accidental or other means.”
In the wake of this tragedy, a gofundme account has been established to support the Maynard family with unexpected expenses. The outpouring of community support has been significant, with donations exceeding the initial $15,000 goal and reaching over $21,000.
The events surrounding the Maynard family’s disappearance serve as a stark reminder of the unpredictable nature of the sea and the fragility of life. While the official search has been suspended, the memory of the Texas family lost in Alaskan waters remains, and the legal process to declare their presumptive death moves forward, bringing a somber chapter to a close for the loved ones of David, Mary, Colton, and Brantley Maynard. The community’s support through initiatives like the GoFundMe reflects the collective grief and desire to assist during this incredibly difficult time, even as the search for definitive answers concludes.
