On February 23, 2006, 43-year-old Franklin Richard of Federal Way, Washington, was working aboard the 50-foot crab fishing vessel Northern Dawn near Unalaska Island, Alaska. He and fellow crewman Scott Thomas Trible were collecting empty pots when the vessel disappeared west of Dutch Harbor; the boat is presumed to have sunk near Volcano Bay after its EPIRB activated about 5:31 a.m., placing the vessel roughly two miles off the Bering Sea side of Unalaska Island.

Searchers located the vessel’s EPIRB and a life ring and observed a small oily sheen on the water, but neither the Northern Dawn nor its two crew members were ever found. Franklin Richard was noted to have distinctive tattoos: nature scenes on his left arm, birds on his right forearm, and another tattoo on his left shoulder. The Alaska State Troopers handled the investigation.

If anyone has information about the Northern Dawn, its final location, or Franklin Richard’s movements that morning, please share what is known.