Spark of Hope Remains for Family of Missing Fisherman

Jay Barrett/KMXT

While authorities continue to seek clues to the disappearance two weeks ago of a 27-year-old Homer fisherman in Kodiak, a family member says the young man may have been in a fight before he went missing. Nevertheless, they’re holding out a glimmer of hope that he’s still alive.

Mihay Kalugin, a crewman aboard the fishing vessel Competition was last seen in downtown Kodiak in the early morning hours of February 22nd, a Sunday. It was basically an extension of a Saturday night out.

Alex Reutov of Homer is Kalugin’s cousin. He is in Kodiak to help the family search and to take Kalugin’s place on the family-run longliner. He said he was told Kalugin was having a raucous night on the town.

“My cousin, my other cousin told me he was fighting with three people in the harbor. Fighting with one guy and two other guys jumped on top of him. And hit him in the head, and blood too much come out (sic),” Reutov said. “(That was) four o’clock in the morning, and after there he disappeared and nobody knows nothing.”

The glimmer of hope comes from word Reutov said the family received that Kalugin was seen shopping at Walmart later on the Sunday he disappeared.

“Buying camping stuff, sleeping bags – four of them, five maybe; and pillows, everything,” he said. “And some clothes, too, boots.”

It leads Reutov to speculate Kalugin might have gone camping without telling anyone – something he’s apparently done before. In the meantime, the search goes on.

Kalugin is six-feet tall, 195-pounds with short light hair and a heavy redish beard in the style of the Russian Old Believer community. Anyone with information about Kalugin’s whereabouts or fate should call the Kodiak Police Department at 486-8000.