The Ketchikan Police Department has heard local concerns circulating regarding several recent cases \u2014 including active missing person cases and a suicide \u2014 that foul play was involved and that the disappearances might be linked.<\/p>\n
Ketchikan Police Chief Alan Bengaard and Deputy Police Chief Josh Dossett on Wednesday said the department has pursued leads and pieces of evidence in each case, and that the cases all remain active.<\/p>\n
The KPD\u2019s active missing person cases are:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Thomas William Booth, 35, was last seen by his girlfriend between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Jan. 2 on Woodland Avenue, according to Dossett.<\/p>\n
Booth was going to run some errands \u2014 either on foot or by taking a bus \u2014 and didn\u2019t come back. He made it to Safeway by 4:30 p.m. Jan. 2, Dossett said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Booth\u2019s girlfriend reported him missing on Jan. 5. However, she told the KPD on Jan. 6 that she\u2019d received word from Metlakatla \u2014 where Booth has family \u2014 that he was there and safe. On Jan. 15, the KPD was contacted by the Metlakatla Police Department, which said that Booth was not in Metlakatla, according to Dossett.<\/p>\n
The Metlakatla department had been contacted by Booth\u2019s mother, who was concerned for his safety, Dossett added.<\/p>\n
Police haven\u2019t been able to speak with anyone who saw Booth after he picked up a small money transfer \u2014 about $25 \u2014 at Safeway and left the store, Dossett said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the last place we could put him,\u201d Dossett said, adding that Safeway\u2019s security cameras are currently out of order. \u201cThey can\u2019t download (the footage), so we haven\u2019t been able to pull the actual video to look at it to see which door he walked out of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booth\u2019s cellphone records show no activity after he was initially reported missing, and there is no evidence Booth left Revillagigedo Island by commercial transit, according to Dossett.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Gary Hamilton, 69, was reported to the department by his family as missing on Nov. 26, according to Bengaard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got no real good recollection of time or events,\u201d Bengaard said. \u201cTrying to get them to put something together in a chronological order is next to impossible. We\u2019ve run down a number of the leads they had. We\u2019ve had some say that he was in Sitka and (others say) Anchorage, and we\u2019ve not been able to verify any of those whatsoever. … There is no evidence he\u2019s left the island.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police also have heard that, prior to his disappearance, Hamilton appeared to have been beaten. Hamilton didn\u2019t report any assault to the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot verify that someone actually assaulted him,\u201d Bengaard said. \u201cYeah, we\u2019ve heard the rumor (that) he was beaten up, but no one could say who did it or when it occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Roy Victor Banhart, 38 years old at the time of his disappearance, was last seen in the early morning of Dec. 30, 2014, after leaving the 49er Bar on Water Street. A six-person Ketchikan District Court jury, on Oct. 21, reached a verdict that \u201cit may fairly be presumed\u201d that Banhart has died.<\/p>\n
While the case is still active, police have pursued the leads and evidence they\u2019ve found to this point, according to Dossett.<\/p>\n
Police have heard that people think foul play might have been involved in the three missing person cases, according to Bengaard and Dossett.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have any evidence either way,\u201d Dossett said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any suspects. We certainly don\u2019t have any reports that would cause us to say, \u2018Yes, there\u2019s been foul play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Bengaard added that the idea of foul play being involved in the disappearances has been \u201ccirculating in the local rumor mill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be purely speculative on our part,\u201d Bengaard said. \u201c … You can\u2019t make a statement like that. We just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never make that statement without some factual basis behind it, and I don\u2019t have those facts,\u201d Dossett added.<\/p>\n
\nOther cases<\/strong><\/p>\n Police have no evidence that a local man\u2019s suicide and a local woman\u2019s drowning might have been the result of foul play.<\/p>\n Chris Hill, 31, was found dead of in the early morning of Jan. 18 under a covered area in the northern section of Berth 4.<\/p>\n The initial investigation found that the death was a suicide, and an autopsy conducted at the Alaska State Medical Examiner\u2019s Office in Anchorage did not turn up evidence to the contrary, according to Bengaard and Dossett.<\/p>\n Hill had parked the vehicle he was living in at the time near to where his body was found, and he left a suicide note, Dossett said.<\/p>\n While the drowning case was handled by the Alaska State Troopers, Bengaard and Dossett said they\u2019d heard rumors about that incident as well.<\/p>\n At approximately 1 a.m. July 9, troopers received a report of a body floating in the Tongass Narrows less than a mile from the U.S. Coast Guard base.<\/p>\n Troopers and the Coast Guard recovered the body, which was not bound, and the victim was identified as 34-year-old Angeline Tanya Dundas.<\/p>\n There have been rumors that Dundas was bound \u2014 possibly hogtied \u2014 before her body was found.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was not hogtied,\u201d Dossett said.<\/p>\n Dundas was with a friend on a dock along the Narrows when they separated. Dundas, who had been drinking, walked toward the end of the dock, according to Bengaard and Dossett.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the last contact that we know of,\u201d Bengaard said.<\/p>\n Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters in an email Thursday said the death was ruled an accidental drowning, that there were no signs of foul play and that alcohol was a factor in her death.<\/p>\n Troopers and the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad also conducted a search for a missing man in mid-November who hasn\u2019t yet been found.<\/p>\n Justin Nathan, 22, was drinking and hiking with a friend on Deer Mountain. He was unable to make the descent \u2014 stopping around the second lookout, about two miles from the trailhead \u2014 and his friend came down the mountain to get help. Nathan was missing when the KVRS reached the lookout, and a multi-day search was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n Alcohol likely played a factor in most of the recent disappearances, according to Dossett.<\/p>\n Anyone with information on the missing person cases may contact the KPD at (907) 225-6631.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are from Ketchikan and they have family members that are worried about them,\u201d Dossett said. \u201cWe\u2019ll run down any lead we get and try to talk to whoever has information, because we want to find out what happened to them and where they might be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Ketchikan Police Department has heard local concerns circulating regarding several recent cases \u2014 including active missing person cases and a suicide \u2014 that foul play was involved and that the disappearances might be linked. Ketchikan Police Chief Alan Bengaard and Deputy Police Chief Josh Dossett on Wednesday said the department has pursued leads and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16530"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}