Marty Dean Small, 47, vanished from a supervised holiday cruise on Lake Union on the evening of November 19, 1981. He was a patient at the local VA hospital, staying in the psychiatric ward, and the outing aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Fir was sponsored by the hospital with Elks Club chaperones. When the cutter returned, 28 of the 29 patients were accounted for; Marty was not.

Marty was described as a white male, 5 feet 8 inches, 160–180 pounds, with blond hair and large dark blue eyes. He wore a green down jacket, denim jeans and sneakers that night and may have had a gold chain choker. His wallet was found aboard the ship; searches of the vessel and surrounding waters did not recover him or any remains. He had been diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder and had reported suicidal ideation before his disappearance. A death certificate was filed in 1989 and he has been presumed drowned.

The few hard facts leave a narrow window into what happened on a supervised outing from which one person was missing. Anyone with memories of that cruise or information about Marty’s movements that night is asked to come forward.