But he added that those specific failures were symptoms of broader dysfunction, like public defender and prosecutor jobs going unfilled because of obstacles to recruitment and retention, as well as travel restrictions. "Is it a greater population? It appeared that Smith recorded them himself, according to the affidavit. In that case, her father was charged with the killing. The FBI is testing his DNA in a nationwide database that may reveal if he is linked to any crimes in other states, McKinnon said. (Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News). So far, nothing has been found. The Anchorage Police Department has identified the victim as Kathleen J. Henry, 30, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon. (Loren Holmes / Alaska Dispatch News). Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, the womans body was found along Turnagain Arm, near the Rainbow trailhead. Marcytook every votive candle she could find in her house, plus a piece of Christmas pie in plasticwrap, to leave as an offering at a makeshift altar another corner of Anchorage turned into an impromptu memorial for a person killed in 2016. Corrections:This article originally incorrectly stated that a homicide had taken place in the Kempton Hills subdivision in 2016. An employee at the city of Mountain Village said the city currently has no police officer and that no officials were available to comment on the case. AnAlaska man accused of brutally assaulting and murdering a woman who was seen strangled in videos found ona digital memory cardhasbeen charged with another death, authorities said Thursday. Around 2010, he left Alaska and spent time in Las Vegas before moving to Virginia, where his parents now live. All rights reserved. But they are working to build a case meeting the evidence threshold that would allow for prosecution, Markiewicz said. In 2007, she had been severely injured when her fiance's son,Christopher Erin Rodgers, attacked the couple with a machete at their Palmer home. Kyle Hopkins and Nat Herz, Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. The remarks by the veteran judge came in a 37-page order to delay the murder trial of Alexie Walters, a man accused of beating his girlfriend, Gertrude Queenie, to death in 2017 in Mountain Village, on the Yukon River in Southwest Alaska. [8] He died in prison in August 2014. "Loose lips sink ships," Markiewicz said. Thim declined to say anything about the other investigation, or whether Smith is a suspect in other crimes. Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . Mar 6th 600p DARLA Recently retired newly weds embark on their third tropical cruise in less than year. The SD card was labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, according to the affidavit. Rodgers went on to kill another man in Anchorage and shoot two others who survived before his 26-hour rampage ended. Authorities say Schilmiller, who has been arrested in New Salisbury, Indiana, and will be transferred to Alaska next month, began an online relationship with 18-year-old Denali Brehmer of Anchorage, posing as Tyler. He moved back to Alaska in the spring of 2016. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The SD card, reportedly discovered lying in the street in an Anchorage neighborhood, was labeled homicide at midtown Marriott and contained graphic, time-stamped images and video recordings of a man beating and choking a naked woman, according to charging documents. Smith, 48, appeared in Anchorage Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon. ' said APD communications director MJ Thim. He also told officials Brehmer communicated with him throughout the murder, and sent Snapchat photographs and videos of Hoffman while bound and then after the murder. Other images showed the woman covered in a white sheet, being moved through a parking lot to a truck. If you are considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or Stop Suicide Alaska at 1-877-266-HELP. According to the affidavit, the couple had separate bedrooms. All rights reserved. Legal Statement. The graphic videos show a woman being strangled and a mans voice saying justdie, the Associated Press reported. Our salaries up here used to be the draw, an attorney for the agency said. He was returning to Anchorage, where he lives, Thim said. A memorial for James Lucas Moren in an alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016. More than three dozenimages and 12 videos were stored on the card, according to the charging documents. Public records show that he lives in a home in the Geneva Woods neighborhood, and a social media profile that appears to belong to him says he married an Anchorage woman in 2014. According to online court records, no new trial date has been set in the killing of Gertrude Queenie. The death on Tuesday night triggered a lockdown of the 3,400-passenger ship. According to the affidavit, Doubek, who had reportedly struggled with substance abuse, had been growing increasingly paranoid that his wife was having an affair, and because of his behavior, Gardner had considered divorcing him. Marcy keeps running over the questions in her mind: Why is this happening in Anchorage? MacDonald, who was appointed by then-Gov. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. [2][4], Serial killer Robert Hansen admitted responsibility for Eklutna Annie's murder in 1984. The year'shomicides include at least seven domestic violence killings, where the victim is believed to have beenslain by an intimate partner or someone in their immediate family. James Dale Ritchie was a senior at East High School in 1994. Delay is always the friend of the defense because it makes it harder for prosecutors to put on their case.. Ritchie is considered the main suspect in those killings, said Markiewicz. Bill said that in her experience with the criminal justice system, cases involving white defendants and victims appear to be resolved more quickly than cases involving Alaska Natives. Witnesses say she was travelling with her children. Schilmiller offered Brehmer nine or more million dollars to carry out the murder and to have photographs and/or videos of the murder sent to him, the documents say. "What we're seeing is that when we ask the community for assistance, they really respond to us," he said. A 48-year-old Anchorage man was charged with murder after someone found a digital card containing dozens of videos and photos that authorities say show him beating and killing a woman in a. Police did not say why the SD card was in the street, but they believe Smith recorded the images himself, according to the AP. The killings happened in nearly every corner of Anchorage: from an Eagle River apartment complex toa normally quietsouth-sidesubdivision. The final images on the card show the womans body face down in the bed of a pickup, and were time-stamped Sept. 6. Lucas Moren himself had cleaned up the bloody scene of the machete attack on his mother. Among those charged is Darin Schilmiller, whom authorities say presented himself as the millionaire Tyler from Kansas, using a fake photograph. Police have not yet pointed to any known motive in the cases where Ritchie is identified as a suspect. Throughout 2016, Ritchie murdered upwards of five individuals in and around Anchorage, Alaska, most of whom were in parks or along bike paths. Born in Montana but raised in Alaska, Duke married, raised three children and worked jobs including as a teachers aide. Smith came to Alaska from South Africa about five years ago and became a naturalized U.S. citizen last month, according to the bail memo. [3][4], Eklutna Annie was murdered by serial killer Robert Hansen, most likely in 1979. She said he never exhibited any violent tendencies such as those she heard of from police. Photos apparently show the woman underneath a blanketon a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, per the document. One man, James Dale Ritchie, is the prime suspect in five deaths. Igou pleaded guilty on November 5, 2020 to the September 10, 2017 murder of Aurora Paint Company co-owner Gregory Gill. State prosecutors say Darin Lee Jones, 54, and Shawn Michael Phillips, 52, killed Patricia Phelps, 48, in Anchorage's Spenard neighborhood in 2017. A 48-year-old Anchorage man was charged with murder after someone found a digital card containing dozens of videos and photos that authorities say show him beating and killing a woman in a Midtown hotel room. It's not that clear-cut, said McKinnon. Read about our approach to external linking. Thats going to escalate things tremendously because when were talking about misuse of substances, that inhibition is gone. Police have not identified the victim, who is said to have been killed during the first week of September. (Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP) Author: The Associated Press Published: 10:58 PM EDT August 9, 2019 Updated: 3:40 AM EDT August 12, 2019 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP . In at least two cases, a person believed to be breaking into a home was killed in what prosecutors determinedto be self-defense, and no charges were filed.The deaths ofLoren Douglas, 30, andAllen Raymond, 19, are still considered homicides by APD. The man in the video speaks with a distinct accent, which led detectives to recall a separate case involving Smith, a South African immigrant living in Anchorage. Police say the majority of the deaths fall into the same tragic but predictable circumstances that thread through homicides every year: domestic violence, personal disputes escalated by a weapon, robberies gone bad. (Loren Holmes / ADN). The memory card found along road shows an Anchorage man assaulting and killing woman. Couldnt take it anymore., A second note was found among Doubeks belongings that according to troopers, discussed possible drug dealers and that one of them was having an affair with his wife.. In 2017, the year Queenie was killed, the rate of women killed by men in Alaska was three times the national average and the highest in the United States, according to the Violence Policy Center. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Published: Jan. 27, 2022 at 4:27 PM PST. CALIFORNIA MAN SENTENCED AFTER FORMER ROOMMATE FOUND DEAD, BLUDGEONED INSIDE WALL. I don't believe it.". Last Monday, Sept. 30, a woman called police dispatch to report that shed found an SD card containing a video of a homicide on the ground, police said. "Why life seems harder, why things seem scarier why is that? According to Hansen, Eklutna Annie had been wearing blue jeans, a sweater, and a brown leather jacket. Doug Moody, a supervisor at the Public Defender Agency, said in a phone interview Tuesday that Cherot will be reviewing MacDonalds critique. Doubek slept downstairs. She has not been identified. Many of the victims were young. But at one of the many stops along the way, a grizzly discovery is made when crew membersfind the widower's body crammed into her own suitcase. [9] A box of Salem matches were found in a pocket of her jacket, indicating she may have been a smoker. Upon examining the card, police said it"contained several videos which appeared to show the assault and subsequent homicide of an adult female" and an investigation was opened. Together, the homicides pose a question for Anchorage: What made 2016 so deadly? After Mr. Mackay and the pilot's sister, Muriel . ThatFriday, she dropped him off for an evening out downtown. (Scott Jensen / Alaska Dispatch News). Contact her at zhollander@adn.com. They were all going to spend Christmas together the next day. Michelle Theriault Boots is a reporter who covers news and features about life in Alaska, and has been focusing on corrections and psychiatric care issues in the state. More than a few cases seem to trace back to a personal slight or insult that escalated into violence, said Lt. John McKinnon, head of APD's homicide unit. While the agencys inflation-adjusted spending has doubled in the past 30 years, its felony caseload has tripled, it says. (Google). Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster gave invocation at Kenai Assembly meeting, Even more cruise ships are coming to Alaska in 2020. 28, 2020 at 10:10 AM PDT. Parents would be wise to monitor the activity of their children online.. Born in Montana but raised in Alaska, Duke married, raised three children and worked jobs including as a teacher's aide. In 2017, the year Queenie was killed, the rate of women killed by men in Alaska was three times the national average and the highest in the United States, according to the Violence Policy Center. 2019, on charges of murder in Anchorage, Alaska. Police said the body was found near milepost 108 of Seward Highway on Oct. 2. More officers on the streets as with arecently addeddowntown foot patrol,members of which made an arrest in Moren's murder onChristmas Eve make streets safer. Authorities who reviewed the SD cards contents said they remembered Smith from another investigation and found he was registered in early September to a room at a local hotel which had the same carpet pattern as the one in the video. At one June hearing, shortly before she resigned, the public defender noted she was working a double case load. They are unwilling to share details of crimes in which charges have not been filed. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll told reporters Abouchuk's family reported her missing in February, but he said she had last been seen by them in July 2018. APD officer Arn Salao was wounded and the suspect, James Dale Ritchie, was killed in the early-morning shootout. Market data provided by Factset. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. The caller later told officers the card a small memory card used in portable digital devices was discarded on the street at the corner of Fairbanks Street and 13th Avenue in Fairview, near the Gambell Carrs store. The millionaire's only demand for the payout was either . Alaska copscharged an Anchorage man with murderTuesday after shocking videos found on a mysterious memory card allegedly capturedthe suspectassaulting and killing a woman whose remains were recently discoverednear a highway. He has since been released, now in the custody of authorities, and is charged with first- and second-degree murder. McKinnon pointed out that in the same year Anchorage set a homicide record, it also set a record for thenumber of touristsvisiting the city. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.