Vanished Over the Alaskan Valley: The Unfinished Story of Missing Air Passenger Donald Gabbert

A Missing Name in Alaska’s Vast Records

In the long list of missing Alaskans, the name Donald Hugh Gabbert stands out as one of five men who vanished aboard a twin-engine aircraft that left Anchorage in the summer of 1984 and never arrived at its destination. Public missing-person databases record Gabbert as a white, male resident of Anchorage, Alaska, 44 years old when he disappeared, with brown hair, hazel eyes, a height of about 75 inches , and a weight of roughly 200 pounds. He was last seen in Anchorage on July 25, 1984, and his case was entered into statewide and national systems maintained by the Alaska State Troopers and NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The records note that he is still officially missing, with Alaska State Troopers listed as the primary investigating agency and a case report date of July 25, 1984, the very day he disappeared.

From West Virginia Roots to an Alaskan Frontier Life

Although official missing-person files focus on the circumstances of the disappearance, genealogical sources provide a glimpse at Gabbert’s earlier life. Historical records list him as Donald Hugh Gabbert, born on May 21, 1940, in Booth, Monongalia County, West Virginia. Those same sources identify his parents as Donald Gabbert and Lydia Isabel Straight and show that he came from a large West Virginia family whose roots are documented in regional genealogy compilations. In these records, his life dates are given as 1940–1984, aligning his presumed year of death with the date the plane vanished out of Anchorage. A memorial entry for him in the Fort Richardson National Cemetery near Anchorage describes a cenotaph in his name, again using July 25, 1984, as his date of death and noting that he was 44 years old....Read More

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