When the sun rose on the morning of August 27, 1986, an experienced boater, his three sons, and a family friend embarked on a day of fishing aboard the shrimp boat “Liebling.” They set sail from Crescent City, California, a small town on the Pacific Ocean twenty miles south of the Oregon border.

By the time the sun rose the following morning, friends and family were fishing for answers, as the Liebling had vanished somewhere on the waters. A Coast Guard search found no trace of the boat or its crew members.

Scant evidence later found leaves little doubt that the Liebling crew met an unfortunate fate.

The Crew Of The Liebling

Forty-year-old Dale “Red” Dixson, had recently married for the second time. The Liebling captain picked up his three sons, eighteen-year-old Rusty, fifteen-year-old Jason, and six-year-old Caleb, from their mother’s Crescent City home on the morning of August 27.  The boys were excited about a day on the ocean with their dad before the school year started. Caleb, in particular, was most eager as it would be his first time on the Liebling. Also aboard was the boys’ springer spaniel puppy, Rowdy.

The group embarked for a four-day trip. Their destination was north of Cape Blanco, Oregon, ninety miles north of Crescent City.

The Dixson Fishermen

Red And His Boys Rusty, Jason, And Caleb

Family friend Mike Goergen accompanied the Dixson’s on the fishing expedition. He lived in Brookings, Oregon, twenty-five miles north of Crescent City.  Like Red, he was also an experienced shrimper.

Mike Goergan

Two other boats accompanied the eighty-foot-long, twenty-year-old Liebling, based in Astoria, Oregon, four-hundred-fifteen miles north of Crescent City.

The waters were calm when the group departed, but fog set in throughout the day and into the evening. The last contact made with the Liebling was at approximately 11:30 p.m. when Mike Goergen made a routine call to another ship saying everything was fine but cautioned them to be aware of a large barge and tug in the area.

One-a-half hours later, crew members of the accompanying shrimp boat “Cape Sebastian” saw the Liebling fifteen miles south of Cape Blanco and three miles offshore. The locale was twelve miles northeast of Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast. This was the last sighting of the vessel.

The Coast Guard was notified at 10:00 a.m. after repeated radio calls to the Liebling went unanswered. No distress calls from the shrimp boat had been received.

The Liebling carried upward of 10,000-15,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Searchers believed the slick on the water would be visible for miles had the vessel sunk. No slick, no oil leakage, and no debris from the boat were found.

A 16,000-square-mile aerial search off the northern California and southern Oregon coasts involving airplanes, helicopters, and long range C-130 aircraft also found no trace of the Liebling.

The Liebling

After finding no evidence of the ship’s sinking, the Coast Guard considered the possibility that Red had taken his sons to Columbia, the native country of his new bride, Omaira, who was eight months pregnant. For the last year-and-a-half, Red had been living and fishing in the Central American country, and he and Omaira had discussed living there permanently.

Was Red Columbia Bound?

Red’s former wife, Pam Strait, the boys’ mother, does not believe he would have kidnapped their children. Though divorced, Pam says they had a good relationship and that Red could see the kids, which included two daughters, as he wanted.

(Some sources spell Pam’s last name as “Straight.”)

Pam Strait

Red Dixson’s Former Wife

It seems even more unlikely that Mike Goergen would willingly abandon his family for a life in South America. He and his wife Kim were happily married with three sons, five-year-old Michael, two-year-old Matthew, and one-year-old Eric.

Kim And Mike

Several hours before the Liebling vanished, fisherman D.J. Cole, sailing approximately five miles behind the boat, was radioed by Mike Goergen warning him of the tugboat and barge in the area. The Liebling would likely have gone under the water in seconds if hit by the barge. The tugboat crew probably would not have known the Liebling had been hit, because of the tremendous size and weight differential between the barge and the boat.

If a collision did occur, however, debris would be expected on the ocean’s surface. None was found.

D. J. Cole

Fisherman

On September, 15, three weeks after the Liebling was last seen, a clue to the vessel’s fate may have literally surfaced.

Troy Vought, another fisherman, was on the sea when his net snagged an obstruction several hundred feet below the ocean’s surface near where the Liebling had last been seen. He fished in the area often and is certain the object had not been there prior to the Liebling’s disappearance.

 Troy Vought

Fisherman

A month later, when Troy was again fishing in the same area, his net caught on the same obstruction. This time, he pulled it up and videotaped it. The obstruction was a shrimp net recognized by D.J. Cole as the spare net he had sold to Red Dixson.

Red’s family and fellow fishermen also positively identified the fishing net as coming from the Liebling.

A Shrimp Net Is Found

From The Liebling

The finding of the shrimp net likely meant an ominous outcome; the Liebling had almost assuredly sunk and all onboard perished. The boat likely lies near where the fishing net was found.

Underwater cameras or vehicles which could locate the Liebling at the bottom of the ocean are extremely expensive. Red Dixson’s daughter Sarah commented on Facebook in 2015 that she had put in a request for the cost of using such equipment but had not received a response.

Pacific Marine Insurance Company of Portland, Oregon, investigated but found nothing suggesting the Liebling had traveled to Columbia. The company paid a $300,000 policy split among Pam Strait, Omaira Dixson, and Kim Goergen.

The Liebling likely lies at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The day may come when its remains are raised to the surface.

The remains of its crew, however, are likely lost forever, having long ago been devoured by the ocean’s creatures.

The Liebling Crew Are

Likely Lost Forever

SOURCES

• Associated Press
• Eureka Times Standard
• Los Angeles Times
• The Oregonian
• Spokane Chronicle
• Unsolved Mysteries
• UPI