U.S.

Ring Found Amidst Wreckage

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 4, 2000 / 5:21 PM EST / CBS

It's one of those private pacts a daughter makes with her dad: The one who dies first sends a signal to the other that all is well in the hereafter.

The waters off the California coast are filled with debris from Alaska Airline Flight 261, CBS station KIRO-TV Correspondent Chris Lagaros reports, and an astonishing discovery at the crash site being seen as just such a message by one victim's daughter.

Amid the scattered possessions of the 88 people who were on board that have been recovered was a red-and-gold Mason's ring belonging to Bob Williams. Tracy Knizek says she sees the ring as a sign from her father that he is at peace. Until she was told of the ring's recovery, the Suquamish, Wash., woman had struggled to accept the loss of both her parents in Monday's crash.

"Maybe this is God's way of telling us that this is really happening and that everything is going to be OK, and that hopefully I'll hear from him again," she said.

"Ever since I was a little girl, my dad and I had a deal. Whoever died first, the other one would come back and tell them what it's like. It was just to let the other person know if it's OK, like we think it's going to be."

Commercial fishermen who were helping to illuminate the crash scene Monday night made the discovery.

Scott Jarvis, 37, and his nephew, 21-year-old Kevin Marquiss, pulled enough seat cushions, insulation and other debris from the water to cover the back deck of their 32-foot boat.

Later, as they cleaned jet fuel off the decks, they discovered the ring nestled in a deck hatch. Studded with three ruby-colored jewels, it had a large capital G in the center - that Jarvis later learned stood for "Grand Master Mason."

Marquiss says that when he found the ring, I thought we needed to do the right thing." After spending a full day on the phone, Jarvis was able to learn that two Masons from Washington state died in the crash, Bob Thorngramson and Williams.

The lodge secretary was able to identify the ring as Williams', and arrangements are being made to get the ring to his family.

His lodge brothers are moved that at least part of their dear friend has been found. "To me, it's a symbol of our fraternity," says lodge master Lloyd Hartz. "And the fact that it showed up, and is one of the few pieces that have showed up that people can remember their loved ones by, makes it a miracle to me."

Williams, 65, and his wife, Patty, 63, were returning home to the Puget Sound region after spending two weeks in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with friends Robert and Lorna Thorgrimson, who also died aboard Flight 261.

Knizek, 39, had always been close to her parents. After living away from home for several years, she moved into a second house on their nine-acre property five years ago.

"They were my best friends in the whole world," she said of her parents.