Alaska News

History of tragedy follows family of man killed in Anchorage hit-and-run

Guy Merculief, killed in a hit-and-run early Saturday morning in Anchorage, was not the first member of his family to be run down on the streets of Alaska's largest city by a stranger.

First there was Caroline Merculief, his niece, who died in 2001 after being beaten and run over by a car outside a Russian Jack apartment building, her family said. She was 25. A 20-year-old man was later convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death.

Last summer another niece, April Merculief, was deliberately run over by two men in a red SUV as she walked near International Airport Road with her husband. The mother of three survived but, a year later, continues to undergo surgeries for her injuries. No arrests have been made in the case, according to her family.

Then, Guy Merculief, a guitar-playing father of five who lived in Bethel, was killed in a hit-and-run collision Saturday as he crossed Fifth Avenue near a Holiday gas station.

The family originally hails from the remote Pribilof Islands, though family members have moved to hub communities such as Anchorage and Bethel in recent years.

The city keeps dealing blows, said Olga Merculief, the mother of Caroline and April and wife of Victor Merculief, Guy Merculief's older brother.

"It's just crazy out there," she said.

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Police have said the 54-year-old was hit by a Red Honda Civic as he walked across Fifth Avenue around 2 a.m. Saturday. He was found dead in the roadway.

Witnesses led police to the driver, identified as 22-year-old Pao Yang, who fled the scene but was found parked just around the corner, according to police.

Police said Yang tested at twice the legal limit for alcohol, and has been charged with manslaughter, DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

For Merculief's brother and sister-in-law, who live in East Anchorage, the news came in an early-morning phone call Saturday.

"I was told my brother had been hit," said Victor Merculief. " I said 'what do you mean hit?' I didn't realize he was gone."

Guy Merculief grew up in St. George, the youngest boy in a large family, his brother said.

He attended Mt. Edgecumbe High School and later married a woman from Bethel. He lived there for years and was known as a skilled musician who was rarely without his hollow-body guitar.

His friendliness had an urgency, his sister-in-law said.

"He was always helping somebody. He wanted to help them out today, this very minute," Olga said.

When he died, Merculief had been visiting Anchorage with his girlfriend, who was in town for a medical appointment, Victor Merculief said.

They'd been staying with friends and family members, including a night or two with Victor and Olga. On the night he died, Guy Merculief had been out visiting friends before a planned flight home to Bethel the next day. He was known to always walk or take the bus.

Olga and Victor think he might have been walking to the Holiday station to get some coffee or make a phone call. They believe he may have been heading back to their home. He carried a guitar and a duffel bag, but they don't know what happened to the items.

Meanwhile, their daughter April Merculief, 35, is still recovering from injuries sustained when a red SUV crushed her in a midtown parking lot last summer. Detectives said they had no clear motive for why a vehicle pulled up to April and her boyfriend early on the morning of May 31, 2013, began to yell obscenities and then charged "full-throttle" at the couple.

April and her boyfriend Nicholas Philemonoff moved from St. Paul to Anchorage so April could recover near medical facilities.

Olga Merculief said she and her husband are being comforted by family and friends. But the loss of another loved one on the Anchorage streets is a difficult reality to adjust to.

"It's very shocking for us," she said. "Again."

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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