Tourism

Federal authorities are charging a Utah man in the murder of his wife aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Southeast Alaska.

Kenneth Ray Manzanares, 39, of Santa Clara, Utah, is charged in the death of Kristy Manzanares, who died Tuesday.

After about 15 FBI agents conducted approximately 200 passenger and crew interviews in Juneau, the agency announced the charge at a news conference today and released their account of what happened.

The FBI criminal complaint laid out this timeline and cited eyewitness accounts.

Witnesses aboard the Emerald Princess entered the couple’s cabin and saw blood on Manzanares’ hands and clothing. A witness asked what happened, to which he reportedly replied, “She would not stop laughing at me.”

According to the FBI, the witness watched Manzanares drag the woman toward a balcony. The witness pulled her back into the couple’s cabin.

Soon after, at about 9 p.m., Emerald Princess security and medical staff arrived. The woman was dead with a severe head wound. Blood was throughout the room on multiple surfaces. A cruise ship security officer restrained Manzanares and he was arrested the next day.

Alaska’s acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder said Manzanares is charged generally with murder under a federal statute that includes a first- and second-degree component.

The FBI noted in its complaint that Manzanares at one point said, “My life is over.” Schroder said that’s not necessarily an admission of guilt.

“I don’t think you can burrow into the mind of someone who is a potential defendant in a case with a comment like that and make any real conclusions,” Schroder said.

Schroder could not confirm whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the incident.

Manzanares made an initial appearance at 2 p.m. Thursday in federal court in Anchorage via video conference from Juneau, where he’s being held.

If convicted, Manzanares could face life in prison or the death penalty, and a fine of up to $250,000. He’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 10 in Anchorage.

Schroder gave the alleged crime some context.

“I don’t remember the last time that we’ve had a murder on a cruise ship in Alaska,” Schroder said. “I’ve been here for 12 years and I’m a retired Coast Guard officer so it’s the kind of thing that would mean something to me and I don’t think we’ve had one since I’ve been here.”

Special Agent in Charge Marlin Ritzman said in Juneau, FBI specialists are providing assistance to family members.

Schroder and Ritzman wouldn’t directly confirm that children are involved. But a reporter asked if there was support for “the girls.”

The reporter said, “These girls potentially don’t have parents. I mean they don’t. One’s in jail and one’s dead.”

Ritzman responded,”They have family members. There’s other family members.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Editor’s note: The story has been updated and expanded to include information about the alleged crime and details about Manzanares’ first appearance.

Alaska Public Media’s Wesley Early contributed to this report.

Over a million cruise ship visitors are projected to land in Juneau this year. And the summer cruising season is a big boost for coastal retailers. But, it also brings all of the noisy traffic, haze and water quality issues of big cities — to small towns in Alaska.  

On a rainy weekday Ed White, and a team from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), walk down a busy sidewalk in Juneau.  

They dodge tourists who stop to photograph ravens against a panoramic foggy, mountain backdrop or dip into one of dozens of retailers downtown.

“Sometimes .. often we try to get out earlier in the morning when traffic’s not as bad,” White says. “We can also start closer up on a hill there near where some of the stairways and apartments are and do our air readings there.”

White works for the state’s cruise ship monitoring program.

And money collected from the cruise ship passengers is the reason he can do his job. Each passenger pays a small fee to the state. It pays for things like air and water quality monitoring. It’s just a few dollars a ticket, but that money adds up. The state has collected more than $5 million this year.

White’s cruise ship monitoring team is one of the only bright spots in the DEC’s budget.

“Looking at the bigger long term picture. That’s probably, you know, the most reliable funding source that we have — those fees that fund that program,” said DEC Budget Manager Ruth Kostik.

Alaska has been struggling with a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, brought on by low oil prices. And most departments have taken big budget hits as the state tries to bring its spending down and its revenue up.

As lawmakers decide how to divvy up the state’s general fund money — state departments have seen deeper and deeper cuts.

In the last four years, DEC has seen a drop of more than one-third of the unrestricted money it usually gets from the general fund.

And those cuts mean state monitors aren’t able to keep an eye on a lot of things.  Find bedbugs in your hotel room? Too bad, the state doesn’t do hotel sanitation inspections anymore. Rusty shears at your local salon? They don’t inspect barbers or hairdressers either. Even some small drinking water systems don’t get monitored anymore.

Kostik says DEC has lost 60 positions in the last few years.

But for now, the cruise ship monitoring program is shielded from those cuts as Alaska’s cruising industry is booming.

Back in downtown Juneau, Ed White heads down to the dock.  Someone called his office to complain that the MV Noordam was belching smoke in the air as it motored into Juneau.

Now tied up. The Noordam towers over downtown.  It has 11 decks and is about the same height as the tallest building in town.

White’s office gets these calls pretty regularly.  He says they average about one a week during the cruising season.

“A lot of people here in Juneau grew up with ships. They’ve been here for years so people know what ships generally look like when they’re maneuvering…and often we get calls when something’s… out of the ordinary,” White said.

Clean air, clean water, responsible ships — it’s important for a lot of Alaskans. The state was the first to require a Coast Guard licensed marine engineer to ride along with the cruise ships. They’re independent observers — put there by a 2006 voter referendum that created the Ocean Ranger program. It’s paid for by a $4 fee levied against passengers.

In 2016, Rangers reported more than 170 separate incidents — alleging oil pollution, wastewater and air pollution violations and potential safety hazards.

The ships will call too, often self-reporting a problem as they’re fixing it.

And for now, that monitoring will continue.  Shielded from the state’s shredded budget by out-of-state visitors.

Update | 9:09 a.m. Thursday

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is expected to announce federal murder charges against a suspect in the death of a 39-year-old woman aboard a cruise ship.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a joint news conference will include representatives from the U.S. Attorney, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the U.S. Attorney’s Office Conference Room in the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse & Federal Building.

— Tripp J Crouse, KTOO

Original story | 10:30 a.m. Wednesday

‘Suspicious death’ reported on cruise ship in Southeast Alaska

Investigators were headed to Juneau early Wednesday after a “suspicious death” occurred on a cruise ship, according to the FBI Anchorage division.

Staci Feger-Pellessier, an FBI spokeswoman, said the death happened aboard a Princess Cruises liner.

Princess Cruises said in a statement Wednesday there was a “domestic dispute” aboard the Emerald Princess around 9 p.m. Tuesday, “resulting in the death of a 39-year-old female guest from Utah.”

Negin Kamali, Princess Cruises’ director of public relations, said in an email that the ship docked in Juneau at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday. She said the dispute occurred in U.S. waters.

“Since the incident, our fleet security team has been coordinating with the FBI and other local authorities,” the cruise line said. “They will be embarking the ship when it arrives in Juneau this morning.”

The statement did not include the name of the victim or any additional information on the dispute.

It said the Emerald Princess left Seattle on Sunday for a seven-day round-trip cruise to Alaska

Feger-Pellessier of the FBI said she did not have additional information early Wednesday.

Editor’s note: This story has been republished with permission from the Alaska Dispatch News.

— Tegan Hanlon, Alaska Dispatch News

Skagway could miss out on $15 million to $30 million over 20 years if it doesn’t renovate its port for larger cruise ships, according to port consultants who delivered the message to residents last week.

Even without the bigger ships, visitor revenue will increase.

It’s difficult to overstate Skagway’s reliance on tourism. More than two-thirds of the city’s revenue comes from sales tax, cruise passenger head tax, and bed tax.

To what degree that revenue increases depends on the decisions Skagway makes over the next couple months.

“Without dramatizing it, this is the most important decision you’ll make probably for the next 20 years,” said Shaun McFarlane, who is with Moffatt & Nichol, a port consulting firm hired by city.

“There are cruise ships wanting to come in in 2019,” McFarlane said. “There’s not a lot of time for more navel-gazing.”

Here’s the situation: Even more massive cruise ships are expected in Alaska in two years.

Skagway doesn’t have the dock capacity to accept more than one mega-ship at a time.

In order to build a floating dock that would create more capacity, the city needs access to property currently leased by a private company.

White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad has said it will cooperate on those improvements, but only if it gets a guarantee its lease will continue past its current expiration date in 2023.

McFarlane said working with White Pass is the best bet to meet the deadline for bigger ships.

“You already have a context and a player in place with White Pass to allow that project to move forward,” McFarlane said.

Moffatt & Nichol conducted an economic analysis where they projected how much income the city would lose without a floating dock for larger cruise ships.

First there’s the question of whether smaller ships would take advantage of the open dock space if the mega-ships weren’t able to make port calls.

McFarlane said that’s not likely. But if it were to happen, contractor Lorraine Cordova said Skagway could lose out on about 2,000 passengers per week in 2019.

“We’re still saying there’s gonna be an increase in cruise ship passengers that’ll come to Skagway even in the constrained case, you’re gonna have more passengers than you have today,” Cordova said. “But it’s gonna be about 2,000 less than what you could’ve had.”

The 2,000 visitors per week equates to about 40,000 throughout the whole 2019 season, a conservative estimate.

If no smaller ships are waiting in the wings to take advantage of empty dock space, Skagway could lose 4,000 passengers per week.

Cordova said the total estimated loss in revenue is between $15 million and $30 million over a 20-year period.

Again, Cordova said without the bigger ships, Skagway’s visitor income would still increase, but the city just wouldn’t be able to capture all of the money it could.

Moffatt & Nichol’s subcontractor Julie Dinneen conducted an appraisal of Skagway’s tidelands and uplands.

A proposed new lease with White Pass would cover just the tidelands beneath the ore and Broadway docks. Dinneen said tidelands typically lease for 6 percent to 7 percent of the land value.

If the city were to follow that rationale, Dinneen said the annual lease payments would be about $60,000 at the low end and $94,000 at the high end.

That’s significantly less than the yearly rent payment of $200,000 proposed by White Pass. It’s also less than what the railroad is paying right now.

White Pass has controlled the majority of Skagway’s waterfront, including cruise operations, for decades.

Some residents don’t want to sign a longer lease because they think the city should take over management of the port.

Moffatt & Nichol also researched port governance structures. They gave examples of ports which, like Skagway, have a public-private partnership, and others in which the government oversees operations.

One of Moffatt & Nichol’s main points was that if Skagway were the create a port authority and transition to a more active role, it would be a long process.

And, as one consultant put it, time is not on Skagway’s side.

The full Moffatt & Nichol reports are at skagway.org.

Skagway paid about $265,000 for the economic analysis, port governance study and environmental compliance report. The city paid Moffatt & Nichol a separate $200,000 for a short-term port planning process.

The Skagway Assembly is holding a special meeting Wednesday, July 26, to discuss the new White Pass lease proposal.

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey set foot in Sitka on Wednesday. She was ferried there on a Holland America cruise ship, with stops in Juneau and Ketchikan. Hundreds of loyal fans on board were seeking adventure, inspiration, and, if they were lucky, a chance to chat with the queen of daytime television.

And after a long day’s hike.. Cheers to ya? #lovinalaska

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah) on Jul 17, 2017 at 8:11pm PDT

Rumors that she was coming to Sitka floated around for weeks. News reports from Juneau confirmed her arrival, as did her Instagram account. In a video uploaded Monday, she sings, “Getting ready to hike the Mount Roberts Trail, here in Alaska!”

Oprah declared 2017 her “Year of Adventure” and launched a series of cruises – one to Alaska, where she had never been before. On her itinerary for Sitka was a visit to Fortress of the Bear, the Alaska Raptor Center, and watching the New Archangel Dancers at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Many of her cruise ship passengers were hoping to catch a glimpse. Classie Hoyle is a former alderwoman from Annapolis, Maryland, and she’s been watching Oprah’s career ascend for decades.

“She’s certainly a role model and I’m — what, 20 years older than she?” Hoyle said.

The seven-day cruise departed Seattle on Saturday and was organized by O, the Oprah Magazine. Activities take inspiration straight from the magazine’s pages. There are yoga classes, an onboard book club, motivational talks and gifts – every night. “Not a car,” Hoyle jokes, referring to a 2004 episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show where every audience member got a Pontiac G6.

The swag on the cruise is more modest: a visor, a pen and a journal specifically for this trip. Oprah is big on reflection and on her faith. She was raised a Baptist and after years of physical and sexual abuse, and ran away from home when she was 13.

Even now, as one of the wealthiest people in the world, Hoyle said Oprah told a cruise ship audience that she still gets on her knees every night to pray. “Regardless of how much she goes out and parties, that is something she always does, which was shocking to me. You wouldn’t think a billionaire … but she says, every night she prays.”

Outside Harrigan, there’s still no sign of Oprah. Bus after bus of her fans arrive, sporting gear with a giant “O” logo. Part of the appeal of Oprah is that she’s built a massive empire around personal growth. People are inspired by her because she inspires them.

“I’m getting from this trip, that I will take with me, is I felt Oprah for the first time in the last 25 years,” said Coco Hunt. “You can read her. You can see her. But being in her presence, her essence, really flowed in the room. Everyone was captivated. You could hear a pin drop.”

Hunt is from San Diego, California. Her grandfather used to ask her, “What are you hunting for?” to which she replied, “I’m hunting to see what else I can do to leave a footprint on this Earth.”

Suddenly grabbing my hand, she tells me that I have a purpose, too.

Hunt: You have a voice. You have a voice. It’s important that you’re here and you have something for the universe. Isn’t that amazing? That you have an assignment?

KCAW: What are you? Are you a teacher?

Hunt: No, I’m just a person! That’s holding your hand. You’re the one that’s special.

KCAW: Well, thank you!

Hunt: Yes!

KCAW: You’re very special too.

It isn’t Oprah, but getting motivation from a true disciple of hers is the next best thing.

I walk away beaming and find a gaggle of young fans – Haley Silva, Faith Holst, Kayden Plummer – who have received the disappointing news that Oprah left town. “Maybe she’s eating something?” Holst asks. “Maybe she got a corn dog!” says Plummer. Silva wanted her autograph.

Several tour guides confirm that Oprah cancelled all her plans and around 2:50 p.m., went straight to her private jet from the ship, overwhelmed by all the attention she’d been receiving aboard. Ultimately, Oprah came and went without a trace. But what she does share of herself tends to linger long after she leaves.

Before losing consciousness, a 65-year-old Juneau man remembers taking photos of a bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park then the animal turned toward him and charged.

According to a park news release, Michael Turk took a late evening hike on the Buckhorn Trail in the park’s north unit on June 30. Turk planned to take photos of the sunset.

Park officials said he gave a bison he encountered a wide berth on his way to the photo location. On his way back to a campground, Turk stopped to photograph another bison, which then charged him.

He woke with a large cut on his left inner thigh and other cuts and bruises. The park said he was able to hike to the trailhead where he saw a third bison. He climbed uphill and called for help.

Seven campers responded to Turk’s calls. When they arrived at the trailhead, they saw a bison between them and Turk who was about 50 yards away. The campers couldn’t scare the bison away until one person fired a handgun into the ground. That convinced the animal to leave.

The campers helped Turk to the trailhead, dressed his wound and drove him toward the park entrance. An ambulance took him to a hospital where he was treated and released.

The park stressed that bison are “large, powerful and fast-moving.” It said that even though the animals may look docile, they are wild animals that can be startled by humans, especially after dark.

The park’s regulations require visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from large animals like bison, elk, deer and horses.

The release added that it’s legal for visitors to carry a firearm under certain conditions, but it is illegal to fire one in a national park.

Michael Turk couldn’t be reached for comment.