Heartbreaking audio from a presumed death hearing sheds light on the tragic final moments of the Maynard family, who were lost at sea when their tour boat capsized off the coast of Alaska in August. Mary and David Maynard, ages 37 and 42, along with their two sons, Colton, 11, and Brantley, 7, are presumed dead after the 28-foot aluminum tour boat they were traveling on took on water. and overturned. near Homer, Alaska.
The ship reportedly radioed for help and a nearby ship responded, but upon arrival, rescuers were only able to save four people from the ship. The Maynards were not among them and the survivors were found in a life raft without their families. “They were just gone,” one survivor told jurors during the Sept. 19 hearing, according to reports. KCEN-TV. “It was maybe 10 minutes from when we had fun until the boat capsized, the engines went out and the nose went up.”
The captain of the tour boat, whose identity has not been revealed, testified that one of the engines failed, forcing him to anchor and ask a nearby fishing boat for help. The captain recalled, “At one point, David caught my attention and pointed to a drain hole in the deck and asked, ‘Is that normal?’ I said, ‘No.'” The captain then tried to start I started the engine and raised the anchor, but the boat wouldn’t start. The last time he saw David was when he radioed for help.
The captain explained that when the ship began to sink rapidly, he tried to get his own family into the life raft and did not know where the Maynards went. By the time the ship is near, salt seaWhen he arrived, he realized that the Maynards had not managed to get off the ship. Despite rescue efforts, which included a helicopter, an airplane, a cutter, and two additional boats, the search for the Maynard continued for 30 hours without success.
The U.S. Coast Guard, with assistance from Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Good Samaritan teams, conducted the search using steamboats. However, the chances of survival were slim; The Coast Guard estimated the family’s functional survival time to be just over 7 hours, and cold survival time to be less than 10 hours.
On September 19, a six-person jury concluded that the Maynards had died from accidental drowning. Despite the ruling, the family’s relatives continue to search for answers. David’s aunt, Rhonda Rizzo, expressed frustration, saying, “We have no idea what happened. “We have several stories, but nothing definitive, and it’s just frustrating.”
Rizzo remembered the last time he spoke to the family, the day they disappeared. Hours later he received a call informing him that the boat had capsized and the family was lost at sea. He remembered Colton as a “beautiful boy” with a “heart of gold” who loved to hug people, while Brantley, whom he described as a “spitfire,” shared a similar personality to his father.
Mary worked as a travel nurse, while David stayed home to care for the children and run a lawn care business. The Maynards had faced challenges, including Colton’s epilepsy, which required brain surgery in 2021. Despite the difficulties, the family enjoyed traveling and spending time together, and were doing what they loved when they tragically disappeared in Alaska.