State Troopers say driver may have lost control of vehicle

Alaska State Troopers continue to investigate a fatal accident that claimed the lives of four seine boat crewmembers sometime after 10 P.M. on Monday, July 27.

A Ford Excursion driven by Siguard Decker drove off the roadway near the 27-mile marker of Mitkof Highway at a high rate of speed, according to Alaska State Troopers. Megan Peters, communications director with the Alaska Dept. of Public Safety said Siguard Decker, who was driving, seems to have had lost control of the vehicle and then over corrected before running off the road. The resulting crash took the lives of two Wrangell citizens, Siguard Decker, 21, and Helen Decker, 19, as well as Ian Martin, 29, of Petersburg and Dennis Lord, 37, of New York, according to an updated ADPS press release. 

At about 10:18 A.M. on Tuesday, July 28, Alaska State Troopers received a request for a welfare check on four people who were last known to be headed south on Mitkof Island towards the Blind Slough area the day before, according to the ADPS release. Friends of the four passengers were out looking for the individuals after they didn't return that morning. They discovered tire marks on the roadway, which led them to the wreckage, said Peters.

While responding, troopers were informed of a vehicle wreck near the 27 mile mark of Mitkof Highway.

The highway was closed at intermittent times until about 11:30 P.M. on July 28 while authorities investigated the crash. 

Troopers were assisted by the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, Petersburg EMS, U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Tonka Toy Rentals during the initial response and investigation of the accident.

Robert Thorstenson, Jr., owner of the F/V Magnus Martens and F/V Vigilant, said all four individuals had been fishing with him in the days leading up to the car crash. Both vessels were out on Sunday, July 26, right off of Sea Gull Bluff, when a storm prevented the team from seining. At one point, the Magnus Martens was taking water over the bow and had to return back to Petersburg. 

Thorstenson, who was on the Vigilant, had also wanted to return to the harbor, but Siguard and Helen were determined to keep fishing. He said the team ended up catching 25,000 pounds of fish, 4,000 of which were sockeye salmon. It was his biggest day of the year to date.

"If you weren't a complete rock star, you had no business being on deck that day," said Thorstenson.

That's how Thorstenson remembers Siguard and Helen, as rock stars. He said they were two of the most confident, hardest working and talented fishermen he has ever worked with. Siguard had been working with Thorstenson since May 2015 and Helen had just started in May of last year, but they were both already doing things that fishermen in their 30s and 40s could only hope to accomplish, said Thorstenson. 

They were both also studying marketing and business at universities in Southern California, said Thorstenson.

Martin and Lord had been fishing onboard the Magnus Martens that Sunday, but Thorstenson said they were close with the Decker siblings. Lord had just started out fishing and Siguard and Helen were teaching him how to fish and guiding him along. Thorstenson said Helen and Sigaurd never looked down on Lord or anyone else for that matter who was not up to the same skill level as them. He said the brother and sister fishing duo treated everyone with respect and never said anything bad about anyone. 

"If God was going to take them up to heaven at a young age and take them away from us, which is the only place kids like that deserve to go, if He was going to do that, I count it as a pure blessing to have them share a part of their lives and have their parents share a part of their lives with me and with Petersburg,"said Thorstenson.