Knik man finds jawbone, solves mystery

KNIK -- "Strange things always happen to him," Dawn Brunke said of her husband, Bob.

None stranger, though, than a June 9 incident on Tanaga Island in the Aleutians. Brunke, a U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist, was on a field project when he spotted a jawbone in the rocks along the shoreline.

He described the eerie situation during an interview last week at the couple's home off Knik-Goose Bay Road.

"I'm into bones," said Brunke, who often finds animal remains at work sites. "At first all I could see was missing teeth in front and I thought it was an otter jaw. With all the dental work it was obviously human.

"I wasn't freaked out, but I was like 'Wow!'"

He called Dawn later in the day via satellite telephone and she called Alaska State Troopers, who directed her to the trooper office in Dillingham. Troopers there had originally investigated the sinking of two fishing boats -- the Amber Dawn two years ago and the Galaxy last year.

Brunke went back to the location at the urging of Dillingham troopers and found remnants of a survival suit in the water. The suit and jawbone were turned over to trooper forensics experts.

Meanwhile, Brunke went online and did some research. To him, everything pointed toward the jaw and suit belonging to someone from the Galaxy, a 100-foot cod boat from Seattle. That vessel caught fire and went down on Oct. 20, 2002, after floating for a couple of days.

Brunke's hunch was right. Earlier this month it was determined by dental records that the jawbone belonged to George Karn, who was a cook on the Galaxy.

Karn was one of two people on the boat who were never found, according to a Seattle Times story. After the man's identity was learned, Karn's sister Trish called Brunke to say it helped the family to know what happened.

"She was very thankful," Brunke said. "To me, it was a mystery too. Where did he come from? Where did he go?"

The jawbone traveled 400 nautical miles from where the Galaxy went down. Yet, that's not the oddest twist to the story.

Brunke said Karn had been offered a job on another fishing boat in 2001 but turned it down because he felt the boat was too small and unsafe. That vessel was the Arctic Rose, which sunk west of the Pribilof Islands.