The fishing vessel set out to sea at dawn on April 23rd, 2017 in the Gulf of Alaska, approximately 200 miles from the coast.

The crew was fishing for Halibet when their nets caught something large but unusually light for these waters.

When the cargo was brought to the surface, the captain saw a bright orange plastic kayak badly faded from saltwater and sun.

The boat was drifting in the open ocean, and inside it was still sitting a human figure whose hands were clutching a wooden ore.

As they got closer, the sailors realized that they were looking at a skeleton completely devoid of soft tissue, but still in a sitting position.

The bones of the hands were literally embedded in the handle of the paddle, as if the man had held on to it with his last ounce of strength before dying.

The captain immediately contacted the Coast Guard and the ship headed for the nearest port in Sitka.

When the authorities examined the find, they discovered details that turned the story into something more than a tragic accident.

The skeleton’s legs were bolted to the bottom of the kayak with four metal bolts that went through the shin bones and were secured with nuts from underneath the hull.

This was done in such a way that the person could not physically leave the boat even if he wanted to.

In the pocket of the jacket remains, they found a driver’s license issued to Thomas Andrews, 35 years old.

Date of birth, March 16th, 1966.

The plastic card had survived despite years spent in the ocean.

The photo on the license showed a man with short dark hair and a calm gaze.

Records showed that Andrews had been listed as missing since August 2001.

Thomas worked as a manager for a small construction company in Juno and was known as an experienced water sports enthusiast.

He regularly rafted down the rivers and bays of Alaska, often alone, preferring the silence and the opportunity to be alone with nature.

Friends described him as a cautious and prepared person who never went out on the water without the appropriate equipment and never left without notifying his loved ones of his route.

On August 7th, 2001, Thomas told his sister Margaret that he was planning a 3-day trip along the coast from Juno to a small bay about 50 mi to the south.

He was due to return on the evening of the 10th.

The weather during those days was changeable, but not critical for an experienced kayaker.

Margaret remembered that her brother seemed calm and even joked that he would bring her some dried fish that he planned to buy from a local fisherman in one of the villages along the way.

On August 10th, Thomas did not return.

Margaret tried to contact him on his cell phone, but it was out of range, which was normal for remote coastal areas.

By the evening of the 11th, when he still had not appeared, his sister contacted the local authorities.

The search operation began the next day.

Boats and helicopters combed Thomas’s presumed route, checking every cove and stretch of shore where he might have stopped or been in distress.

The search continued for 2 weeks, but yielded no results.

No kayak, no equipment, no traces of Thomas’s presence on the shore were found.

One of the fishermen from the village recalled seeing an orange kayak passing by on the morning of August 9th, but did not pay much attention to it as tourists and water sports enthusiasts were frequent visitors to these waters.

The case was classified as a water accident.

It was assumed that Thomas had been caught in a storm or strong current that carried him out to the open ocean where he drowned and his body was carried away by the waters or became prey to sea creatures.

Such cases, although rare, were not unheard of in Alaska, where the ocean could be unpredictable and cruel.

Thomas’s family held a memorial service in September 2001.

Although his body was never found, Margaret kept her brother’s belongings in the hope that she would one day get answers.

But over the years, that hope faded.

16 years later, the discovery of a fishing vessel brought the case back to life, but in a completely different light.

An examination of the remains confirmed that it was indeed Thomas Andrews.

The DNA matched samples provided by his sister.

The condition of the bones indicated that the body had been in the water for a long time, possibly all 16 years since his disappearance.

The soft tissues had completely disappeared, leaving only the skeleton, which had been preserved because it was protected from large predators by the hull of the kayak.

Saltwater and microorganisms had done their work, slowly but surely, destroying everything except the bones.

However, the main discovery was the bolts.

Four steel bolts with a diameter of 8 mm passed through the tibia of both legs about 10 cm above the ankles.

The holes in the bones were smooth, indicating the use of a drill.

The bolts were tightened with nuts from the outside of the kayak’s bottom, creating a secure fastening that prevented the person from pulling their legs out, even at the cost of fractures.

The forensic expert determined that the holes had been drilled while Thomas was alive as the edges of the bone tissue showed signs of trauma that is only possible in a living organism.

This meant that the man was bolted to the boat knowing that he would be conscious and understand what was happening to him.

The kayak was examined by specialists.

The model was called Orca Explorer, manufactured by a small company in Seattle that specialized in making boats for tourists and extreme sports enthusiasts.

The serial number on the hull made it possible to determine that this particular boat had been sold in May 2001 through a dealer in Juno.

The buyer was listed as Thomas Andrews himself.

It was his personal kayak, which he used for regular trips.

Nothing was found inside the boat except for the remains and an ore.

No equipment, no food or water, no traces of personal belongings.

Only a skeleton bolted to the bottom and an ore in his hands.

Investigators began looking for someone who might have had a motive for such a brutal murder.

Thomas’s history was re-examined, including his business connections, relationships with those around him, and possible conflicts.

Thomas worked for a construction company, but before that, he had been a co-owner of a small business manufacturing tourist equipment for 3 years.

His partner was a 42-year-old man named Richard Coleman, who owned a workshop that made custom kayaks and canoes.

They met through mutual friends and decided to join forces.

Thomas handled the financial side and customer acquisition, while Richard was responsible for production.

The business did well for the first two years, but then problems began.

Thomas discovered that Richard had been using company money for personal needs, including paying off old debts and gambling, which he did regularly.

When this came to light, the partners quarreled.

Thomas insisted that Richard returned the money and stop his spending, but Richard refused to admit guilt, claiming that he had the right to dispose of the company’s funds as a co-owner.

The conflict escalated into a legal battle that lasted several months and ended in March 2001.

The court ruled in Thomas’s favor, ordering Richard to pay compensation and leave the business.

The company was closed because without a master craftsman, production was impossible, and Thomas did not want to continue the business alone.

Richard lost everything.

His workshop was sold to pay off debts.

His wife filed for divorce and took the children.

and he was left alone in a rented apartment with minimal income from odd jobs.

Friends recalled that he openly blamed Thomas for his ruin, saying that Thomas had deliberately taken the case to court in order to take over the business for himself.

Richard appeared near Thomas’s house several times, but did not make any overt threats.

Thomas told Margaret that he felt uncomfortable about the situation, but believed he had done the right thing in protecting the company’s interests.

After finding the kayak, investigators tried to locate Richard Coleman.

It turned out that he had disappeared from Juno at the end of August 2001, just a few weeks after Thomas was reported missing.

Neighbors remembered that Richard had suddenly moved out without warning anyone or leaving an address.

The rent for the last month had not been paid.

Attempts to find him through databases and records were unsuccessful.

The man seemed to have vanished without a trace.

His ex-wife reported that she had had no contact with him since their divorce and did not know where he might be.

The bolts found in the kayak became a key piece of evidence.

They were made of a type of stainless steel commonly used in marine equipment.

Experts researched the manufacturer and discovered that these bolts were supplied to a limited number of companies, including Richard Coleman’s workshop.

The purchase records for 2001 showed a batch of these bolts purchased by Richard in June of that year, shortly before Thomas’s disappearance.

This was not direct evidence, but it created a clear link between Richard’s tools and the kayak in which the body was found.

Investigators reviewed all records of Thomas’s last days before his disappearance.

His sister Margaret provided a list of people with whom her brother had been in contact during that period.

Among them was the owner of a small camping equipment store in Juno, who recalled that Thomas had visited him on August 6th to buy a new waterproof phone case.

The conversation was brief and the salesman did not notice anything unusual.

Thomas seemed calm and focused as usual, planning his trip.

He mentioned that he was going to spend a few days on the water and wanted to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city.

That same evening, Thomas stopped at a gas station on the outskirts of town where he filled up his SUV and bought several bottles of water and energy bars.

The cashier vaguely remembered his face, but couldn’t say anything specific.

The surveillance cameras at the gas station had long since ceased to exist by 2017, and the recordings had been lost.

Thomas was last seen alive in the early morning of August 7th when he launched his orange kayak into the water in a small cove near Juno.

A local resident named David, who was walking his dog along the shore, recalled seeing a man in an orange boat sailing out toward open water.

It was around in the morning.

The sun was just beginning to rise and fog still hung over the water.

This was the last confirmed sighting.

After that, Thomas disappeared as if he had dissolved into the ocean.

Now, knowing that he had been tied to the boat and sent on a deadly drift, investigators began to piece together a timeline of what might have happened.

It was clear that the attack had taken place sometime between August 7 and 9 as the fisherman had seen the kayak on the 9th.

This gave a window of approximately 48 hours.

The details became even more grim when experts examined the condition of the bones and the position of the body.

Thomas was sitting in the kayak in a natural rowing position, his hands on the oars and his feet bolted to the bottom.

Experts concluded that the man had spent a considerable amount of time in this position, possibly several days before he died.

The cause of death was most likely dehydration and exhaustion.

In the open ocean, without fresh water or food, a person could survive for 3 to 5 days, depending on weather conditions and physical condition.

Thomas was in good physical shape, which could have prolonged his agony.

It was unbearable to imagine those days.

A man bolted to a boat, drifting in the ocean under the scorching sun during the day and the cold wind at night.

He could not stand up, could not lie down, could not free himself.

The bolts held his legs firmly in place, turning the kayak into a floating prison.

The ore in his hands was useless, as rowing in the open ocean without a destination, and with his legs bolted down made no sense.

The currents carried the boat further and further from the shore towards the endless waters of the northern Pacific Ocean.

Each day brought new torments.

Thirst that became unbearable.

Pain in his legs from the bolts that pierced his bones.

The sun that burned his skin and the salty air that corroded his throat.

Investigators tried to understand how Richard could have done this.

It required a certain amount of preparation and the ability to catch Thomas offg guard.

After studying the route Thomas had planned to take, they assumed that the attack could have taken place in one of the remote bays where Thomas stopped for the night.

Such places were deserted and rarely visited by people, especially on weekdays.

Richard could have known Thomas’s habits because they had been partners for several years and probably discussed his passion for kayaking.

One of Richard’s acquaintances recalled a conversation that took place in early August 2001.

They met by chance in a bar, and Richard was very drunk.

He said that Thomas had ruined his life and that he had to pay for it.

His companion did not attach any importance to this, considering it to be just the drunken ramblings of a man going through a difficult period.

However, now these words took on a new meaning.

Richard had been planning his revenge and had probably been thinking for a long time about how to carry it out.

In the workshop that used to belong to Richard, investigators found old records and tools.

The new owner of the building said that when he bought the premises, there were a few things left there that he was going to throw away, but never got around to it.

Among them was an electric drill, several boxes of bolts and nuts, and a notebook with notes.

The notebook contained various notes about orders and boat drawings, but on one of the pages was a diagram of a kayak with notes about attachment points.

The drawing was rough, but clearly showed where holes could be drilled in the bottom without damaging the structural integrity of the boat.

Next to it were the numbers 8 mm, which exactly matched the bolts found.

This discovery reinforced the investigator’s theory.

Richard had planned the attack in advance, studying exactly how to bolt a person to the boat so that they could not escape.

He knew a lot about making kayaks and understood where to drill holes without flooding the boat.

This was not a spontaneous attack, but a carefully planned murder.

The search for Richard continued.

His photo was sent to all states in Canada as Alaska bordered Canadian territory and it was relatively easy to cross the border, especially through remote areas.

However, no leads emerged.

The man had been missing for too long, and the trail had long since gone cold.

Richard’s bank accounts were closed immediately after his departure from Juno.

The last transaction was dated August 28th, 2001, when he withdrew the remaining cash from an ATM in the city.

The amount was small, about $300.

Investigators turned to witnesses who might have seen something suspicious in the coastal area during those days.

One fisherman recalled seeing a dark blue pickup truck parked on the shore of a small cove on August 8th.

The car was parked right by the water and next to it was a man doing something near a boat.

The fisherman sailed past at a distance and did not pay much attention, deciding that it was just another tourist.

However, now he tried to remember the details.

The man was of medium height, strongly built, and dressed in dark clothes.

The boat was an orange kayak similar to those usually used for rafting.

The pickup truck seemed old to the fisherman, possibly from the 1990s, with scratches on the body.

Vehicle department records showed that Richard owned a dark blue 1992 Chevrolet pickup truck.

the car was registered in his name until August 2001, after which the registration expired and was not renewed.

This meant that either the car had been abandoned or sold without paperwork or Richard had used it to escape.

Attempts to find the pickup truck were unsuccessful.

No car with that license plate number appeared in the databases of subsequent years.

Margaret took the news hard.

She had always suspected that something terrible had happened to her brother, but she had hoped it was an accident, a quick death in the cold waters of the ocean.

Learning that Thomas had spent his days in agony, tied to a boat, slowly dying of thirst, was unbearable.

She remembered how her brother had told her about the conflict with Richard and how he had been worried about the court case.

Thomas said he felt guilty that his partner had lost his business, but he couldn’t have done anything else because Richard had betrayed his trust and embezzled the company’s money.

Margaret remembered that Thomas had even offered Richard help in finding a new job, but he refused and stopped answering his calls.

The investigation also looked into the possibility that Richard had not acted alone.

In order to catch Thomas, tie him to the boat and send him out to sea.

a certain amount of physical strength and possibly an assistant would have been required.

However, no evidence of other people’s involvement was found.

All of Richard’s acquaintances claimed that after his divorce and loss of business, he became withdrawn and avoided socializing.

He had no close friends who would agree to such a crime.

The investigators constructed the following version of events.

Richard learned of Thomas’s plans to go rafting, possibly by overhearing a conversation or seeing preparations for the trip.

He decided that this was the perfect opportunity for revenge.

Knowing Thomas’s route and habits, Richard could predict where he would stop for the night.

On the evening of the 7th or the morning of the 8th of August, when Thomas set up camp in a remote cove, Richard attacked him.

He may have used a weapon or simply taken him by surprise while he was sleeping.

He then bolted Thomas to his own kayak using a drill and bolts he had brought with him.

This took time, and Thomas was most likely conscious and aware of what was happening.

The pain of drilling into his bones must have been excruciating.

Richard then launched the kayak and pushed it out into the open ocean, leaving Thomas at the mercy of the currents and the elements.

It was impossible to reconstruct the exact sequence of events that night, but the physical evidence told its own story.

Experts examined the nature of the holes in the bones and determined that the drilling had been done quickly with no attempt to minimize damage.

This indicated that the attacker had acted decisively, ignoring the victim’s screams or resistance.

Thomas was a strong man who exercised regularly and could have put up serious resistance.

Richard probably knocked him out or stunned him before starting to drill.

A crack was found on the back of the skeleton’s skull, which could have been caused by a blow with a blunt object.

The injury was old, consistent with the time of death, and could explain how Richard was able to immobilize his victim.

The kayak drifted in the ocean for 16 years.

400 miles from the presumed sight of the attack to the point where fishermen found the boat.

Ocean currents in this area move in a circle, forming huge whirlpools that can hold objects for decades.

The kayak got caught in one of these currents, which slowly carried it west, then north, and back to the coast.

Oceanographers constructed a drift model based on data about currents, winds, and the location of the find.

According to their calculations, the boat could have traveled a much greater distance, moving in a spiral in open waters before finally approaching the place where it was discovered.

Over the years, the kayak has weathered many storms and weather changes.

The plastic hull has faded from the sun, losing its bright orange color and turning pale yellow with gray spots.

Scratches and dents have formed on the surface from the impact of waves and possibly from collisions with floating debris or ice flows.

Salt water had accumulated inside the boat, filling the bottom and then evaporating depending on the weather.

Thomas’s skeleton remained in place, held by bolts that prevented the body from slipping or being washed away by the waves.

All these years, the paddle had been in the skeleton’s hands, its bony fingers gripping the wooden handle with the strength of a last effort.

Experts explained that this phenomenon is known as cadaavveric spasm, when muscles freeze at the moment of death, maintaining their position.

Later, when the soft tissues decomposed, the bones remained in the same position, supported by ligaments that had dried out but not completely disintegrated in the cold salt water.

The search for Richard expanded to all of North America.

His photo was shown on local television news programs in Alaska and neighboring states.

Several people called claiming to have seen a man who looked like him, but all the leads turned out to be false.

One witness reported seeing someone resembling Richard in British Columbia in 2003.

The man was working at a sawmill under a different name, but when someone tried to approach him, he quit his job and disappeared before he could be questioned.

Canadian police checked this information, but could not find any documentary evidence.

The sawmill kept sloppy records, and many workers were employed informally and paid in cash.

Another lead led to Oregon where in 2007 a local resident contacted the police claiming that his neighbor looked very similar to the man in the photo.

Investigators checked this information, but it turned out that the neighbor did indeed look similar, but his documents confirmed a different identity, and his alibi for August 2001 was ironclad.

At that time, the man was in prison serving a sentence for petty fraud.

Thomas’s family insisted on continuing the search.

Margaret hired a private investigator who worked on the case in parallel with the official investigation.

The private investigator named James had experience in searching for missing persons and had several successful cases under his belt.

He began by studying all of Richard’s acquaintances, interviewing people he knew before his disappearance.

Most did not remember him well or had not kept in touch with him.

However, one woman, a former colleague of Richards at the workshop, remembered a conversation that took place shortly before his disappearance.

Richard said he was planning to go north, possibly to the Yukon, where he could find work in the gold mines.

Such places were ideal for people who wanted to disappear, as many mines hired workers without checking their documents and paid them in cash.

James traveled to the Yukon, interviewing mine owners and local residents.

The territory was vast and sparsely populated with thousands of square miles of wilderness where a person could easily hide.

In one of the villages, an old-timer recalled that in 2002, a man who had worked at a small mine for several months had come to stay with them.

The description roughly matched Richard, medium height, strong build, with dark hair and a beard.

The man kept to himself, did not socialize with other workers, and left in the winter without leaving an address.

The mine owner was no longer working.

His business had closed many years ago and could not be found.

This was the only more or less reliable lead, but it led nowhere.

Too much time had passed, and even if Richard had indeed been in the Yukon in 2002, it did not help to find him now.

The man could be anywhere, having changed his name and appearance and completely disappeared into society.

Or perhaps he had died during one of his attempts to hide in the wilderness, where death from cold or accident was common place.

The case technically remained open, but in fact, it had reached a dead end.

Without new leads or evidence, it was impossible to continue the active search.

Investigators entered Richard’s information into the National Database of Wanted Persons and left the case pending new information.

If Richard ever came to the attention of law enforcement, he would be immediately arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Margaret was finally able to bury her brother.

The remains were returned to the family after all the forensic tests had been completed.

The funeral was held in a small church in Juno, where a few of Thomas’s friends and acquaintances gathered.

Many of them had long since come to terms with his death, having held a memorial service 16 years earlier.

Now they gathered again to say their final goodbyes.

Margaret spoke of her brother as a kind and honest man who loved nature and the sea, who wished no harm to anyone and did not deserve such a terrible death.

She said that the worst thing for her was not her brother’s death itself, but the realization of what he had to go through in the last days of his life.

The thought that he was sitting strapped to a boat in the open ocean, knowing that no help would come, that he would die slowly and painfully haunted her every night.

The kayak was seized as evidence and placed in storage.

The investigators hoped that it might still be useful if new leads emerged.

The bolts were sent for additional examination where they tried to find fingerprints or traces of DNA, but 16 years in saltwater had destroyed all biological traces.

The metal was clean, bearing no information other than the manufacturer’s mark.

One of the experts suggested that Richard may not have planned for Thomas to die for so long.

Perhaps he expected the boat to be found in a few days and Thomas to die from exposure to the elements, but relatively quickly.

However, the currents carried the kayak much further than could have been anticipated, and the boat ended up in the open ocean, where the chances of it being found were minimal.

This did not justify the crime, but it showed that perhaps even Richard did not realize the full cruelty of his plan.

However, this was only a theory, and the killer’s true motives and thoughts remained unknown.

The story received widespread publicity in local communities in Alaska.

People talked about how a normal business conflict had turned into one of the most brutal murders ever to occur in the region.

Many expressed their support for Thomas’s family and hoped that Richard would one day be found and brought to justice.

Business owners who had dealt with Richard in the past remembered him as a withdrawn and touchy person who did not handle failure well.

Some said they always felt something was wrong with his behavior, especially after his divorce and bankruptcy.

However, no one could have imagined he was capable of such a thing.

Several more years passed after the kayak was found.

The case periodically resurfaced in the news when alleged leads appeared, but they all turned out to be false.

In 2019, someone reported seeing a man resembling Richard working on a ranch in Montana.

A check revealed that it was another man who simply looked similar.

In 2021, information emerged about Richard’s possible discovery in Mexico.

But this also turned out to be a mistake.

Margaret continued to live in Juno, cherishing the memory of her brother.

She created a small fund in his name that helped families of missing persons pay for private investigators and search operations.

She said she wanted other families to not have to go through the years of uncertainty that she had gone through.

Although her brother was found, it brought no relief, only new pain from the realization of how he had died.

The ocean holds many secrets, and Thomas’s story is just one of them.

The currents that carried his kayak for 16 years could have carried it even further, and the boat might never have been found.

The skeleton would have continued to drift in the endless waters until it was completely destroyed or sank.

Chance led the fisherman to the exact spot where the kayak was passing.

And that chance provided answers to questions that had tormented the family for more than a decade and a half.

The question of whether Richard is alive remains open.

He would now be 64 years old, an age when it becomes increasingly difficult to hide.

If he really did go to remote areas and lived under a false name, working in mines or on farms, he could have died of illness or accident, and no one would ever know.

Or perhaps he was still out there somewhere, living a quiet life, under a new identity, avoiding contact and living with the burden of what he had done.

Some crimes remain unsolved, and murderers never face punishment.

That was a reality she had to accept.

For Margaret, the most important thing was that she now knew the truth.

As terrible as this knowledge was, it was better than years of uncertainty.

She could say goodbye to her brother, bury him, and know that he had not abandoned her of his own free will, that something terrible had happened to him, that he had fought to the end.

The ore clutched in the skeleton’s hands was a symbol of this struggle.

The last effort of a man who did not give up even when there was no hope.

The story of the kayak with the dead hands became a legend among Alaskan sailors and fishermen.

They tell it to newcomers as a reminder that the ocean can keep secrets for decades and that revenge is sometimes more terrible than any crime that provoked it.

400 m a drift from shore to the place where it was found.

Every mile was traveled by a dead man bolted to a boat floating nowhere under an indifferent sky.

And endless waves that rocked the kayak day after day, year after year, until fishermen caught it in their nets and returned it to shore where the story that ended but will never be forgotten.