Patrick DeMichele, 44 and a Seward resident, vanished October 11, 2002 while aboard the 48-foot fishing vessel Shenandoah in Gulf of Alaska waters. He was towing the 65-foot Mary J from Homer to Seward with 31-year-old Mark Thibault of Nashua, New Hampshire. A weak EPIRB signal from the Shenandoah near Chugach Bay and Rocky Bay prompted a Coast Guard search that recovered a life raft and debris in the Chugach Bay area. The Mary J was later found aground and abandoned at the entrance to Windy Bay, but neither DeMichele, Thibault nor the Shenandoah have been located. The Alaska State Troopers’ investigation has not produced definitive answers, and the exact circumstances of the vessel’s loss remain unknown.

Did anyone in the area remember seeing the Shenandoah, the Mary J, or either man around October 11, 2002?