The shocking news came 25 years ago.

A Blaine fishing family, including two children, and four young crewmen were confirmed or presumed dead aboard the Investor, a magnificent new purse seiner found ablaze Sept. 7, 1982, near Craig, a fishing village in southeast Alaska.

Police said several of the victims had been shot. Authorities believed the other victims also had been shot, but the intense fire made it impossible to confirm each cause of death, and even to confirm the identity of all of the victims.

“They’re gone, but they’re not forgotten,” said Laurie Hart of Blaine, a sister of Mark Coulthurst, the boat’s 28-year-old owner and skipper.

Also dead were Coulthurst’s pregnant wife, Irene, 28, and their two children, Kimberly, 5, and John, 4.

The four crewmen were Michael Stewart, 19, of Bellingham, a cousin of Mark Coulthurst’s; Blaine High School buddies Jerome Keown and Dean Moon, both 19; and Chris Heyman, 19, of San Rafael, Calif., a friend of the Coulthurst family.

“It tore this community upside down,” recalled Dan Rucker, a teacher and coach at Blaine High who was a close friend of Keown and Moon. “It was total disbelief.”

Friends and family found no quick outlet for their anger. It would be two long years before a suspect was arrested, then more shocks.

The accused man, 24-year-old John Kenneth Peel of Bellingham, was a familiar face. He had once crewed for Coulthurst and had attended the christening of the Investor. He’d even dated one of Mark’s sisters, and had played with Kimberly and John.

That was the beginning of what became Alaska’s longest and most expensive criminal trial. The Investor deaths remain the biggest unresolved murder case in Alaska history.

LEGAL FIASCO?

Alaska investigators said they were certain that Peel was the culprit. Some people today still consider him guilty. The judicial system found otherwise.

At trial in 1986, Peel’s defense attorneys painted a portrait of bungling investigators, badgered witnesses and missed opportunities. They hinted the murders were tied to a drug deal gone bad, and suggested Dean Moon was still alive and a possible suspect.

“I hope someone will still solve it and bring the true killer or killers to justice,” said Phillip Paul Weidner of Anchorage, Peel’s lead defense attorney.

Prosecutors alleged Peel shot Mark Coulthurst during a feud, then killed the others and set the boat afire to cover his tracks.

The skipper of a fishing boat that Peel was working on in Craig testified that he heard screams and popping sounds the night of the murders, then saw Peel standing on the dock with a rifle. But defense attorneys said the skipper was an inconsistent witness who was hooked on Valium.

After seven months and nearly 150 witnesses, the jury deadlocked. The second trial, in 1988, lasted just three months and the defense presented no witnesses. No matter — the second jury acquitted Peel.

The trials combined cost $3 million, according to a 1988 article in The American Lawyer magazine.

The article said prosecutors had failed to provide a motive, a weapon or physical evidence linking Peel to the crime. It labeled the proceedings “a fiasco, an entirely circumstantial case that degenerated into a personal vendetta between attorneys.”

Today, the case is not being actively investigated, said Beth Ipsen, spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers.

“We do believe that we had our guy,” she said.

LOOKING BACK, MOVING ON

The passage of time since the murders and trials has brought new perspectives for friends and family of the victims but will never fully erase their sense of loss.

Jay Moon, a Birch Bay fisherman, says he’s still resentful about the loss of his only brother. He recalled a fishing accident when rescuers found him barely alive floating in the Bering Sea. They asked Jay what had kept him alive.

“I said, ‘My brother,’” Moon said. “I was talking to him. … He’s my angel.”

Bill Keown of Blaine wonders whether his son Jerome would have pursued his dream of becoming a tax attorney. Keown said he advised his five other sons and his daughter to not harbor hate over Jerome’s death.

“Don’t get involved in the hate game,” he said. “God is going to take care of whoever did this, whether John Peel, or whoever.”

Laurie Hart lived in Bellingham in 1982 but moved to Blaine when her brother’s family was slain. Once there, she found a new life with a good job and new friends, including the man she married.

“I wouldn’t have the life that I have now if that hadn’t happened,” she said.

The ashes of Mark, Irene and their children were spread at sea near Blaine, and their names grace several plaques in town. Every year, at the blessing of the fleet in Blaine, Hart places five flowers on the memorial wreath put to sea — one for each relative who died on the Investor: Mark, Irene, their two kids, and her cousin Michael Stewart.

Earlier this month, Dan Rucker, Dave Freeman and four other Blaine High School friends of Keown and Moon gathered to reminisce about their slain friends. They were all members of a group of about a dozen close pals in the Class of 1981.

Keown was smart, Rucker said, a natural leader. Moon was quiet, a hard worker who loved the outdoors. Rucker says he’s not sure who killed them. He wishes he knew.

“It breaks my heart today, not having closure,” he said.

Freeman, now a Blaine businessman, said the six friends talked about what Jerome and Dean might be doing if they were alive. They talked about how their slain buddies would never pursue careers or have families.

“To know they never experienced that — that is the biggest tragedy,” he said.

Dean Kahn’s column runs on Sundays and Mondays. If you have a suggestion for a column, contact him at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291.