A man died after being thrown out of a boat near Tuntutuliak. The accident occurred July 28 on the Tagayarak River, a tributary of the Kuskokwim River.
Two men were in the boat: Gabriel Andrew, age 58, and Paul Mute, age 57, according to a Alaska State Trooper dispatch. Both were from Kongiganak and were heading home when their boat hit an object in the water, throwing them into the river.
The passenger, Gabriel Andrew, swam to the riverbank. He did not see any sign of Mute, who’d been driving the boat. A Tuntutuliak tribal police officer organized a search for the missing man. Within hours, the searchers recovered his body. The remains have been sent to Anchorage for autopsy.
Mute is the third person to die on a Kuskokwim River tributary this month. In early July, Bethel resident David Berlin and his five-year-old granddaughter, Danielle Berlin-Walker, died after two boats collided on the Johnson River.
