AK AK - Michael LeMaitre, 66, Anchorage, 4 July 2012

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Bumping for Michael, now missing a year.

 

[summer_breeze]

http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-a-yea...askas-missing-people-20130708,0,5936173.story

By Mallory Peebles
Channel 2 News
6:16 p.m. AKDT, July 8, 2013

<snipped>

It's a similar story for 65-year-old Michael LeMaitre who disappeared without a trace during the 2012 Mount Marathon race in Seward.

 

[RainyAlaska]

Bumping for Michael.

I've followed this story from the first day. Alaska can be an unforgiving place at times but it still amazes me that Michael disappeared into thin air. There have been no signs of him at all. All the unanswered questions haunt me as I'm sure they do for his poor family. Even though Michael disappeared doing something he loved, it's a harsh reminder to us that Alaska can swallow up a person and leave nothing behind.

Here is hoping that someday we'll have answers.

 

[RainyAlaska]

Bumping for Mr. Lemaitre. Alaska has swallowed up one of her own. Some day soon, there will be answers. We won't forget you. Hopefully 2014 will bring answers to your dear family.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Family Suing in Case of Missing Mt. Marathoner

The family of a 65-year-old Mount Marathon rookie who went missing during the 2012 event is suing the organization that puts on the race.

http://www.anchoragepress.com/blott...cle_fb2bd446-a335-11e3-8740-0019bb2963f4.html



LeMaitre lawsuit set for trial

A jury trial has been set for October in a lawsuit filed against the Seward Chamber of Commerce by the estate of Michael LeMaitre. LeMaitre went missing during the July 4, 2012 Mount Marathon Race and has since been declared dead. Although his remains have not been found to date, an Alaska State Troopers investigation was concluded to the point of a presumption of death.

http://www.thesewardphoenixlog.com/story/2014/02/27/local/lemaitre-lawsuit-set-for-trial/2384.html

 

[RainyAlaska]

Family Suing in Case of Missing Mt. Marathoner

The family of a 65-year-old Mount Marathon rookie who went missing during the 2012 event is suing the organization that puts on the race.

http://www.anchoragepress.com/blott...cle_fb2bd446-a335-11e3-8740-0019bb2963f4.html

That is very surprising given that Mr. Lemaitre didn't hike the trail before the race as the officials strongly recommend for every racer. Just don't see how this could be anyone's fault. Hopefully answers will be forthcoming with or without this lawsuit.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.adn.com/article/20140720/missing-alaska-without-trace

For a long time, there was hope they might find at least a hint to explain the disappearance. They found nothing. There is speculation now that he went past Race Point, climbing toward the true summit of Mount Marathon far back in the Kenai Mountains and fell off a cliff somewhere.

Noting that Race Point, commonly called the "top" of Mount Marathon, is 2 miles east and 1,800 feet lower than the actual summit, Alaska adventurer Tim Kelley has theorized that misinformation might have contributed to Michael's death.

"It would be easy for LeMaitre to think: 'I turn around when I reach the &#8216;top,'" Kelley has written on his blog. " But when he gets to Race Point rock in thick clouds and &#8230; no one is there, and he sees a defined trail going UP and continuing west, he says to himself: 'I&#8217;m not at the top yet, I&#8217;ve got to keep going up.'"

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/mount-marathon-runners-widow-settles-seward-chamber-suit/29145980

The Seward Chamber of Commerce says a lawsuit filed against it by the widow of Michael LeMaitre, the runner who disappeared during the 2012 Mount Marathon Race, has been settled...

In a Wednesday statement announcing the $20,000 settlement with Peggy LeMaitre, the chamber -- which organizes the annual race -- outlined its case countering her initial claims in a $5 million suit that the group&#8217;s conduct was outrageous and that it was negligent in its duty of care for her husband.

 

[KateB]

Michael has been gone for 3 years today.

Mount Marathon 101: A crash course on racing safely in Seward
June 29, 2015
http://www.adn.com/article/20150629/mount-marathon-101-crash-course-racing-safely-seward

Participants in the annual July 4 race are strongly advised to go up and down the mountain at least once before toeing the starting line, but having been on Mount Marathon doesn&#8217;t necessarily make one an expert. The trail can be extremely dangerous, and racers have been severely injured. In the 2012 race, two racers were seriously hurt after falling off wet cliffs and another was declared dead after he disappeared on the mountain without a trace.

...that race also claimed racer Michael LeMaitre, who was last spotted shortly before reaching the summit and was never seen again. In the wake of those incidents, there was a new emphasis on safety, including the pre-race seminar.

2015 Mount Marathon Race
http://www.ktva.com/photo-gallery-2015-mount-marathon-race-743/
The 100th running of Alaska&#8217;s Mount Marathon race takes place on Saturday, July 4, 2015.

 

[Springrain]

Bumping :rose:

 

[JerseyGirl]

66-year-old Michael LeMaitre of Anchorage who went up Mount Marathon on July 4, 2012 and never came down. Mount Marathon towers over the community of Seward at the head of Resurrection Bay about 125 miles south of Anchorage.

It is home to a footrace &#8211; the Seward Mount Marathon &#8211; that rivals the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as the best known sporting event in the 49th state. LeMaitre was the final, back-of-the-pack competitor in that race.

He was last seen near 3,000 feet on the mountain towering above the bay. He was then about 200 feet shy of Race Point, the outcrop below the mountain&#8217;s summit that marks the turn that ends the race uphill and starts the race downhill.

It was a rainy and cold July day. The Race Point timers, who&#8217;d been high on the mountain in inclement weather for more than three hours, were headed down to warm up when they passed LeMaitre. They thought he looked fine.

They told him to make the turn and follow them down. What happened next remains an enduring Alaska mystery. LeMaitre disappeared into the rain and cold and swirling clouds. A big search followed. It found no sign of him and was eventually called off.

His 41-year-old daughter, MaryAnne, came north from Utah to search some more. She enlisted the help of other volunteers. They looked for another month and found nothing. She eventually had to go home. There have been random searches for Michael almost ever since by people who come to the mountain with their own guesses as to where he might have gone.

No sign of him has ever been found. Not a shoe. Not a shred of clothing. Not a bone. Nothing.

https://craigmedred.news/2016/08/23/the-missing-in-alaska/

 

[DD Byrd]

"He was presumed dead through a court action initiated by his wife, Peggy LeMaitre, on July 17, 2012, two weeks after his disappearance,'' the statement said.

2 weeks.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I feel for Michael for what he experienced and send sincere condolences to his family.

 

[Cagle]

Curious Alaska: What happened to the man who went missing running Mount Marathon in 2012?

...SBM

On July 4, 2012, an Anchorage man named Michael LeMaitre went missing as he competed in Mount Marathon, the grueling Seward footrace typically held on the Fourth of July each year.

LeMaitre was running Mount Marathon for the first time. It was especially rainy, foggy and slick that day.

The 66-year-old businessman and grandfather was last seen about three hours into the race, climbing just shy of the race’s turnaround point at an elevation of about 3,000 feet.

LeMaitre never came down. An extensive search turned up nothing.


“No clues. No trace. No trail,” an Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman said at the time.

Nine years on, what happened to LeMaitre is still a mystery.

...SBM

Though declared legally dead for about nine years, LeMaitre is still considered a missing person by Alaska State Troopers. Being declared dead by the court system doesn’t remove someone from the state missing persons clearinghouse, said Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the troopers.

“Law enforcement has to place eyes on him, alive and well,” McDaniel said. “Or remains need to be found.”

...SBM

“If new clues or evidence is discovered Troopers would evaluate new search efforts,” he said.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Bumping up with NamUs profile.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[Pennysmom1]

July 9, 2021

LISTEN: How did this Anchorage runner go missing in a popular mountain race?

Michael LeMaitre went missing while running the 2012 Mount Marathon Race, never to be seen again.

alaskapublic.org

April 26, 2017

Missing From Alaska's Mount Marathon

One runner presumed dead, two others seriously injured Mount Marathon runner Penny Assman takes a brutal on-course fall, breaking her ribs. Photo by Carol Grisswold. It was about 8 p.m. local time on July 4 when Seward, Alaska’s Fire Department received word that 66-year-old Michael LeMaitre of...

www.trailrunnermag.com

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dps.alaska.gov

<modsnip - not an approved source>

LeMaitre Mount Marathon case settled for $20,000, but bitter feelings persist

Despite settlement, Peggy LeMaitre leveled criticism at the Seward Chamber of Commerce. "The Chamber has fought viciously and denies they have any responsibility to any racer,'' her statement said. "The fact remains that they left my husband on the mountain knowing he was there."

www.adn.com

 

[Pennysmom1]

Jan 21, 2016

The Last Man Up

Like a lot of things in Alaska, the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward is famously brutal, even dangerous. Which is precisely why Michael LeMaitre ran it—the last day he was seen alive.

www.runnersworld.com