Widow of Mount Marathon runner who disappeared on mountain still waits for answers 14 years later

SEWARD, Alaska (KTUU) - The last time Peggy LeMaitre saw her husband on July 4, 2012, it was a simple sendoff at the starting line of Seward’s storied Mount Marathon Race.

“I basically said, I love you and have a good race,” she recalled.

Michael LeMaitre, 65, was running the rugged Fourth of July race for the first time. He disappeared on the mountain in cold rain and dense fog, touching off a large search that turned up only a few items — a glove and water bottle — previously reported by KTUU, but no trace of him. LeMaitre, however, said she and her family were never informed of any items being found.

Fourteen years later, Alaska State Troopers still list him as missing.

The 98th running of the historic Mount Marathon Race will be held Saturday in Seward. Often called the toughest 5K race in the world, the event draws up to 30,000 spectators to watch competitors climb 3,022 feet up the mountain before a steep, fast descent back to town.

A first Mount Marathon — and a day of worsening worry

LeMaitre said her husband had wanted to run Mount Marathon for years — a bucket-list goal for a man she described as constantly on the move.

“He was incredibly adventuresome, always, always doing something,” LeMaitre said.

Race day brought some of the worst conditions longtime participants could remember, with low visibility on the steep slopes above town.

When runners began returning and Michael did not, LeMaitre said she started searching for information on her own — first asking another participant whether anyone was still behind him, then checking with race staff.

“There was one guy that kind of came through the bushes and I said to him … is there anybody behind you? … and he said, yeah, I think there’s another person up there,” she recalled.

At the finish area, she said, officials could not tell her whether he had come down.

“They had no way of tracking … there was no electronic — they couldn’t tell me if he came down or not,” she said.

LeMaitre said she waited at the base and called for her husband, then urged hikers heading up to keep an eye out.

“I was at the bottom of the mountain and I’m yelling at the top of my lungs for Michael,” she said.

As the evening wore on, she said she contacted a race official who told her to call back later if he still had not returned.

When it began to get dark and he still was not down, she said emergency responders began mobilizing.

Search efforts — and the lack of anything to hold onto

Searchers worked in difficult weather and poor visibility. Volunteer teams and dogs joined efforts, along with helicopter support, as responders scoured steep terrain near the race route and areas beyond it.

“Just hours went by, days went by, and absolutely nothing,” LeMaitre said.

She said she has heard far-fetched rumors over the years — including claims he fled the country — but none have produced evidence.

“I have his wallet, I have his driver’s license, I have his passport, I have everything here,” she said.

Family members have wrestled with different possibilities, she said, including whether he strayed from the course and ended up near a waterfall.

But, she said, the absence of remains or clothing has left the family in limbo.

Declared dead, but still missing

Months after his disappearance, LeMaitre said she went through a presumptive-death court process that she described as emotionally draining — and necessary for legal and financial matters.

“You can’t do anything until you have that death certificate,” she said.

Even now, she said, the idea of “closure” remains out of reach without a discovery.

“There’s never going to be any closure until they find something,” she said. “You always have your hope up and you never forget.”

Safety changes since 2012

Race leaders have made safety changes in the years since LeMaitre disappeared amid broader concerns about accounting for runners across the steep, braided routes people can take up and down the mountain.

Matias Saari, the race director since 2019, said two changes in particular are now standard.

One is a sweeping operation to ensure someone follows behind the final participants.

The other is a requirement that rookies complete the full course before race day and sign a statement to receive their bib, Saari said.

LeMaitre said she still believes tracking and accountability matter — and that weather should be a factor in whether the race proceeds.

“If they don’t [have electronic trackers] they should,” she said.

“And also, I think if the weather conditions are horrid, they should cancel the race,” she said.

Remembering Michael LeMaitre

LeMaitre said she wants people to remember her husband as more than a missing-person headline: a father of three to his children Jon, Michelle and MaryAnne, and a devoted family man who made the most of life.

“He loved his family. He loved his kids. He laughed a lot. He was always whistling,” she said.

She said she learned at his memorial how many people he had quietly helped through his work supporting military families through his job with the Military and Family Readiness Center as a community readiness consultant, which falls under the 673rd Force Support Squadron on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

“Some of those people got up and said how grateful they were to him for the kindness and the job,” she said.

While she says she can’t ever fully escape a certain lasting cloud of doubt, she still holds out hope that one day, someone hiking the mountain will find something that finally answers the question her family lives with.

“Maybe someday, some hiker or somebody up there will find something,” she said. “There’s days I get out of bed and I go, ‘Michael, where did you go? God, Michael, where did you go?’

“You just, you don’t forget it. You don’t get over it. It will linger with me and my children until we die.”

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com