Richard Lake recalls the wedge of Alaskan landscape, the sheer treachery of the terrain, the footprints that stopped in the snow ... stopped at the sinkhole with its rim layered with large chunks of ice and boulders.

        Into this maw Army Pvt. Mark Lake disappeared 15 years ago, into the water of the Knik Arm, water that would rise and fall by 20 feet with the tide.

Lake

        “But you couldn't even tell there was water underneath there,” said the elder Mr. Lake, of Price Hill, of the area outside Anchorage where his son disappeared. “There was so much ice in there you wouldn't even be able to tell. The theory was he stepped on one of these boulders, lost his balance and went down. Eventually I guess he just froze. Got cold and gave up.”

        The military and Anchorage firefighters searched for Pvt. Lake back in March 1986 after his companions reported him missing. After a while, they abandoned the effort. His family in Cincinnati had a funeral for him in July 1986 at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Montgomery. There was no body and no casket.

        Today, the family will have another graveside service. It will again be at Gate of Heaven. This time they will lay to rest the remains, recovered this month, of Pvt. Lake. Two soldiers, also from Fort Richardson, Alaska, were camping in the area when they found them.

        For the family, the discovery reignited the grieving.

        But it also brought a sense of closure: dashing whatever faint, residual — even far-fetched — hope that Pvt. Lake would come home again.

Army Pvt. Mark Lake disappeared during a March 1986 fishing trip to this spot in Alaska. (Lake family photo) | ZOOM |

        “Since he was never found I tried to believe in my heart that he was still alive and out there somewhere,” said his older brother, David, of Mason. “Now it's like he came back and died again.”

        When David called their mother, Jill Alexander of Deer Park, to let her know Mark's remains had been found, “she screamed and dropped the phone,” David said.

        “We have relief,” Mrs. Alexander said, “but we also have grieved harder this time. At least we know, now we know. You realize that person never will be back. It shatters every little nice thought you had about, you know, just maybe.”

        Pvt. Lake's sister, too, admits wishing he would return.

        “You always had that hope,” Melissa Lake said, “that he was going to walk in the door.”

        Clothing was found with the remains. Pvt. Lake's name was on it. In his pockets were his dog tags, a key, parts of a pocketknife. Dental records confirmed the remains were those of Pvt. Lake, 18, who had been posted to Alaska at Fort Richardson just two weeks earlier.

        He had enlisted after graduating from Oak Hills High School. He completed paratrooper school, shipped out to Alaska, and was assigned as a radio operator with the 4th Battalion, 327th Infantry.

        Pvt. Lake loved fishing and camping. To him, Alaska was probably a little piece of heaven. His mom says he was a mischievous little boy, practically fearless. He was always bringing creatures home. Turtles, insects. All captured in glass jars.

        “He was always curious, always trying to catch something in the yard, like praying mantises,” said his sister, Melissa, 31, of Colerain Township. “He was curious about everything.”

        His father said Pvt. Lake had gone fishing that day in 1986. He spotted moose tracks in the snow and went off to see where they led, one of his fishing companions said.

        When they were ready to leave, his friends honked the car horn. Pvt. Lake didn't return.

        As soon as he heard his son was missing, Mr. Lake rushed to Alaska. David, who had been living in California, joined him.

        The young soldier's father found Alaska breathtaking and scary. “It's too wild,” he said.

        The recovery efforts were dangerous but Mr. Lake wished they would push on.

        “I heard they were going to call off the search and I got panicky,” Mr. Lake said. “I could picture him maybe being on a large chunk of ice floating out in the ocean, still alive and maybe surviving, and nobody's looking for him.”
       • • •

        Mark and David rode mo-peds together. Mark liked to play electric guitar and sometimes drove his sister batty as she tried to study. But he was also doting and brotherly, picking her up from her tennis lessons on his mo-ped and scooting her home.

        “I was his little sister,” Melissa said.

        She went to Alaska as well when her father made a second trip, this time in June 1986. He took a cross with a plaque — stainless steel, about 4 feet high. He staked it into the ground near where Pvt. Lake disappeared. Melissa said the landscape was barren and muddy, a frigid moonscape then fringed with the beauty of wildflowers. “I picked a bunch of them and put them in front of his memorial.”

        Dedicated in memory of Mark D. Lake, it bears as well a message of hope: “We pray he is in the hands of God. And that God will return him to us, his family.

        “If you find him, please call Richard Lake ...”
       

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