On January 29, 1989, 37-year-old Richard Rick Nicholas Kristovich was aboard the 98-foot steel crab fishing vessel Vestfjord when it was lost at sea. The boat was en route from Seattle to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and encountered a severe storm with hurricane-force winds and 30-foot seas about 30 miles south of the Trinity Islands, just west of Kodiak Island. The crew issued a mayday saying the vessel was sinking from heavy ice accumulation.

Kristovich, an American Indian/Alaska Native male with black hair and brown eyes and a sailing-ship tattoo reading Anna on his upper left arm, was one of six people lost. The crew included skipper Dick LaGary, Kevin Melnick, Doug Harding, Bill Hodgins, and passenger Danny McDonald. Two crew bodies were recovered; identities were not specified. The Alaska State Troopers investigated and Kristovich is officially listed as a missing person.

If anyone knew Rick Kristovich, his shipmates, or has information about the Vestfjord’s final voyage, please share what you know.