‘They never came up’: Survivors of Homer boat sinking testify in family’s presumptive death hearing

A family of four from Texas missing since early August when their boat sank near Homer has been declared dead by an Alaska jury in a hearing that included the first public accounts from two survivors.

Texas residents David and Mary Maynard and their two young sons died from accidental drowning after the capsizing of a 28-foot aluminum vessel in Kachemak Bay, according to the Sept. 19 verdict by a six-person jury before a Homer Superior Court judge.

No sign of the family or the boat has been found in a search area Alaska State Troopers now say involved water depth of 180 to 260 feet. A presumptive death certificate was issued Monday.

Another family survived the sinking about 16 miles west of the Homer Spit: Kenai Peninsula couple Weston Gilmore and Alea Perkovich, along with their two young children. Gilmore is a cousin of Mary Maynard.

Authorities have publicly shared few facts about what happened that day. The lack of clues prompted questions about how a family outing in a popular fishing area could go so wrong so fast — and what, if anything, others could do to prevent something similar happening to them.

Last month’s presumptive death trial provided some of the first specifics from the two survivors, as well as from Mary Maynard’s mother, two troopers and a U.S. Coast Guard search coordinator. Audio clips from the hearing, first reported by central Texas media, began circulating nationally earlier this month. The full audio was released to the Anchorage Daily News last week in response to a public records request.

Gilmore and Perkovich described an alarmingly brief period between the first signs the boat was taking on water and the last sight of the bow slipping below the waves with the Maynards apparently trapped inside.

“We don’t know what happened,” Perkovich testified during the hearing, estimating it was “maybe 10 minutes from us having fun” to the boat rolling over, the engines going down, and the bow disappearing.

“We were so far away from it,” she said, her voice breaking as she described the pull of the current on a small dinghy her own family used as a life raft. “And they never came up. They just never came out.”

‘Don’t panic’

The two families met up on Saturday, Aug. 3, for a day of fishing.

The Maynards and their two sons, 11-year-old Colton and 7-year-old Brantley, were visiting from Troy, Texas, a town of about 1,400 roughly 60 miles north of Austin. Mary Maynard, 37, worked as a traveling nurse and David Maynard, 42, stayed home with their children and had a lawn care business, a relative has said. Colton and Brantley played soccer and baseball.

Gilmore is one of Mary Maynard’s cousins, her mother said during last month’s court proceeding. They grew up together in central Texas. The boat belonged to his grandfather.

Gilmore and Perkovich declined a request this week to be interviewed for this story.

At first, the families made for Seldovia to do some trolling but issues with borrowed downriggers prompted them instead to head out for halibut, Gilmore testified during the hearing. As they cruised out, he testified, “one of the engines had sputtered or something like that,” so he stopped and anchored near another boat.

The families were fishing and cooking hot dogs and hamburgers on a camping grill when David Maynard noticed water in the back corner of the boat, near a drain hole, Gilmore testified. He decided to head back to Homer, but the engine wouldn’t start. He hauled anchor and saw the water level was rising.

Gilmore said he pulled the back hatch to look at the fuel tank and the “tank kind of floated up.”

The hold was full of water.

He tried the engines one more time without success, Gilmore testified. David Maynard was next to him, as was Perkovich, he said during the hearing. “I told them, ‘Don’t panic. Get the jackets.’”

Gilmore had picked up extra life jackets before leaving the harbor, he told the jury.

‘Too fast’

Before the boat started taking on water, Perkovich testified, she was sitting in the cabin and her daughter was in her arms. The Maynard boys were on a bed with their mother inside the cabin, she said as well.

Once it became clear the water was rising, she said, she saw Mary Maynard buckling her life jacket as the Texan handed Perkovich the radio to make a mayday call. David Maynard got on his phone to call for help.

At the same time, Perkovich said, she caught sight of Gilmore lowering a dinghy used for a life raft from the top of the boat and knew they were going over. She dropped the radio in her hand and turned toward the window next to her — which was suddenly above her as the boat rolled on its side.

Perkovich handed the little girl to Gilmore, who said he “tossed” the child into the dinghy but dropped the rope. The life raft started floating away. Gilmore jumped into the water, grabbed the rope, and dragged the dinghy back into position, he testified.

The larger boat was sinking, both testified separately. Perkovich said she put their son in the dinghy as she clung to the side.

Both she and Gilmore testified that, as the boat sank out of sight, he reached underwater into a skylight in the bow. He grabbed a leg of the family dog, which did not survive. Nothing else was within reach.

Then the bow railing was coming down at him as the boat submerged and he pushed himself away, Gilmore said.

None of the survivors, including himself, had time to get into life jackets, he said.

“I didn’t even think to get one,” Gilmore testified. “My mind was racing to try and hopefully get ... moving so we weren’t sitting still and then after I realized I couldn’t get the boat moving, I was instantly running for the dinghy.”

Rescue

Troopers say the boat was last seen in Kachemak Bay between Homer and Anchor Point. Authorities described conditions around the time of the sinking as 2-foot waves and winds under 5 knots.

The first report of a vessel taking on water came in at about 6 p.m. that day via marine radio as well as a cellphone call, the Coast Guard’s search coordinator testified last month. A good Samaritan about 15 minutes away rescued the survivors from the little boat, he said.

The family was taken to South Peninsula Hospital in Homer. That’s where Mary Maynard’s mother testified she found out what happened after making the 90-minute drive from Soldotna, where she was staying.

The Coast Guard, after calculating the family’s survival time at just under 10 hours, actively searched for 24 hours, according to testimony from search coordinator Coast Guard Cmdr. Chris Svencer. The nonprofit Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team called off an underwater search on Aug. 20.

Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel this week said investigators still consider the Maynard disappearance a missing persons case. The agency typically doesn’t release reports in such cases unless the person is found, alive or dead.

There is no indication of foul play in the sinking, McDaniel said. Without the vessel, he said, it’s not yet possible to determine what caused the boat to go down.

The jury’s finding last month means the Maynards can legally be declared dead rather than missing. Generally, such hearings are held in situations where people have disappeared in settings in which they’re unlikely to survive or be found, such as a remote plane crash or sometimes a crime. The hearings can help family members settle estate issues and insurance claims, as well as provide some form of closure.

Mary Maynard’s mother, who filed the presumptive death petition finalized this month, told the jury that her family sent photos from the fishing trip that day.

“They were having fun,” she said.

The family was remembered by friends and relatives in late August at a Troy church for a celebration of life followed by a candle vigil held by a local baseball team.

“I’m sure if they would have grown up to be adults, they would have been like their parents,” David Maynard’s aunt said, describing the boys. “They would have been there for anybody in this room.”