Daily Sitka Sentinel

Missing Sitka Woman Is Dead, Jury Declares

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

After hearing testimony in a presumptive death hearing Thursday, a six-member jury returned a verdict that “it may fairly be presumed” that a Sitka woman missing since 2012 is dead.

Lael Grant was 33 when she was last seen in a grocery store in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2012. Intensive searches in the following weeks and months by a number of agencies failed to turn up any clues about her whereabouts. Her vehicle was found days later on Nelson Logging Road, with some belongings and her driver’s license inside.

Testimony was taken under oath in the Sitka courtroom, with Judge Leonard Devaney presiding.

Police officers testified that they view Grant’s death as a “potential homicide” and it’s being actively investigated.

“This is an open investigation,” said Ryan Silva, the detective currently assigned to the case. “We view this as a potential homicide.” 

The jurors delivered their unanimous decision after deliberating about 15 minutes at the end of several hours of testimony. Judge Devaney questioned each juror individually to confirm that they were in agreement on the verdict.

The jury had heard testimony from the police, Sitka search and rescue, and Erika Burkhouse, the sister of the missing woman.

After receiving the jury’s verdict, Devaney signed the presumptive death order and completed paperwork for a death certificate. It says “the jury rendered its verdict on June 25, 2015, unanimously finding that from the evidence given it may be fairly presumed that the missing person has died. It is therefore ordered that Lael Marie Grant is presumed to have died sometime in October 2012.”

The order is effective Oct. 31, 2012, the court document says, because the evidence presented “was clear and convincing and therefore this order may take effect at the time specified by the court.”

Burkhouse filed a request for a death certificate this summer. She told Superior Court Judge Leonard Devaney and the six jurors that she was looking for “closure” for the family and Grant’s two sons. She said the family wanted to have a memorial service for Grant, and continue mourning her loss.

During a break in the proceedings Burkhouse said she hasn’t given up finding out what happened to her sister.

“If I had one wish in life that would by the one wish,” Burkhouse said. “Just knowing what happened isn’t going to make it any easier, but knowing what happened would give us closure. It’s closing one door ....”

Those who testified said they believe that Grant is dead on the basis of what has been discovered so far about her disappearance: an exhaustive search of the remote area where her car was found failed to produce any sign of her; she has not been seen or heard from in two and a half years; she had close ties to her family and friends in Sitka; was not known to travel; and wouldn’t have left her young sons without word. They noted further that her ID was found in her vehicle, and she would have had no practical or financial means to travel. Police said her name has been placed on national databases of missing persons, and that if authorities outside of Sitka had had any contact with her in the past two and a half years, Sitka police would have been notified.

SPD Detective Ryan Silva and former detective Jason Sexton talked about their investigation into Grant’s disappearance, which came while Grant was dealing with the recent loss of her father. Both officers believe she is dead, because it would have been out of character for her to leave town and abandon her two sons, now 12 and 15.

“Lael through everything was a very, very nice person, and a very, very kind person but more than that, she was a mom to two boys,” Sexton said. “Despite years of drug abuse she was there for her sons.”

Family members called police a few days after Grant failed to show up on a Monday morning, as usual, to see her boys before they went to school, the detectives said.

“We determined she probably didn’t leave her family like this,” Sexton said. “Her boys were her life – she wasn’t going to abandon them. That led us to down the road of her being deceased.”

Don Kluting, then-director of the Sitka Mountain Rescue team, explained the extensive search that was conducted in the two weeks following Oct. 20, when Grant’s vehicle was found on the Nelson logging road. Inside were her ID and a grocery receipt for purchases made at 2:08 a.m. Oct. 15, 2012.

Kluting and police believe that the trip to the store confirmed by the store’s surveillance video was the last time she was seen alive.

Kuting said the search covered the areas in the woods around where the car was found, residential areas and other unpopulated areas where they believed Grant might have been. Grant enjoyed hiking, the family said, but usually not in remote areas far off the road system. At some point, Kluting said, the search changed from looking for a live person, into a search to locate a body.

Burkhouse, who now lives in Juneau, testified that she believes her sister is deceased, because she left town rarely, didn’t travel, had no means to travel and wouldn’t have left her children. She added that leaving town would have been difficult with an expired driver’s license. Burkhouse said that prior to her drug use problem Grant was an “absolutely fabulous mother,” and that she continued to be there for her children even after she started using drugs.

“I truly believe 100 percent she would not just have taken off,” Burkhouse said.

During one of the breaks Thursday morning at the courthouse, Burkhouse said the things she has learned about the world of drug abuse in Sitka has been “eye-opening.” She said over the last few years of the investigation she has heard “horrific” stories involving drugs in Sitka.

“Hearing how much the drug world has affected everything in this town,” she said. “My hope is people open their eyes a little and realize it’s a huge problem. The Sitka police are doing a great job in getting those guys that have been selling meth ....” But she said more effort is needed on prevention and education of kids at a young age about the dangers of drugs.

“Catch kids at a young age, educate them, and then they will say no,” Burkhouse said.