It took 26 days after Merrian's disappearance for her to be reported as a missing person and for the search for her to start. shut down anelementary school and a middle school, don't attribute 2016's increase in homicides to any one cause, mother accused of suffocating her infant daughter, killed in a downtown shootout with police, Here are the most-read Alaska Dispatch News stories of 2016. Published: Jul. 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. Together, the homicides pose a question for Anchorage: What made 2016 so deadly? [16], Hansen was sentenced to 461 years in prison without the possibility of parole for her murder and three others. MacDonald declined to be interviewed, saying that Walters case is still open. Around 2010, he left Alaska and spent time in Las Vegas before moving to Virginia, where his parents now live. There were no immediate details aboutthe earlierinvestigation involving Smith. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Parents would be wise to monitor the activity of their children online.. Troopers: Wasilla woman killed, husband charged with her murder, 2023 Iditarod pre-race coverage and Ceremonial Start, Melissa Fry has the forecast for the Iditarod restart in Willow, Animal rights group PETA continues targeting Iditarod sponsors. Ritchie was killed during a shootout with police officers in downtown Anchorage on November 12, 2016. The memory card was labeled "homicide at midtown Marriott" and contained 39 images and 12 videos of an assault and murder. Such delays typically benefit defendants and make it harder for prosecutors to secure convictions, said Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore. / 61.1254; -149.5234. LOUISIANA MAN ARRESTED IN 1989 MURDER CASE: POLICE. This is a truly horrific case that is not the norm for our community, Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll said at a news conference, the Anchorage Daily News reported . The race is on: What to know about the 2023 Iditarod, No injuries in downtown Anchorage commercial building collapse. According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, Charlie was sentenced to 75 years . Jorge Rea-Villa, a handsome tattoo artist who went to a Fourth of July barbecue and ended up dead. In that case, her father was charged with the killing. 1 language. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. "It depends on what we're looking at as far as danger," said McKinnon, speaking generally about citizen safety and homicides in 2016. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com. The killings happened in nearly every corner of Anchorage: from an Eagle River apartment complex toa normally quietsouth-sidesubdivision. 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. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fiesers account supports a complaint filed by prosecutors charging Doubek with the murder of his wife, 54-year-old Marjorie Gardner. Police said the body was found near milepost 108 of Seward Highway on Oct. 2. Photos apparently show the woman underneath a blanketon a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, per the document. APD officer Arn Salao was wounded and the suspect, James Dale Ritchie, was killed in the early-morning shootout. Brian Steven Smith is shown being arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder at the Anchorage Jail courtroom Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. They were all going to spend Christmas together the next day. According to online court records, no new trial date has been set in the killing of Gertrude Queenie. He also told them hehad shot another woman and revealed where he dumped her body. [2][4], Serial killer Robert Hansen admitted responsibility for Eklutna Annie's murder in 1984. (Anchorage, AK) - On April 22, 2021, thirty-one year-old Randall Igou was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth for Murder in the First Degree. A memorial for James Lucas Moren in an alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016. Deadliest state: For women in Alaska, rape and murder are too common When is Eurovision and how do you get tickets? Police were able to identify Smith, a native of South Africa, from the video after recognizing him from a separate, unspecified investigation, in part because of his accent. A district attorney has been selected to oversee the Bethel office and Skidmore said he is in talks with the North Slope Borough in hopes of funding the first Utqiagvik-based district attorney in several years. Anchorage Police investigate the scene where human remains we found at mile 108 of the Seward Highway near Rainbow on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. 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. Alaska teens charged in 'murder for millions' slaying | AP News The card was also labeled homicide at midtown Mariott. In a separate federal investigation rising from the investigation, Schilmiller and Brehmer were indicted Tuesday on federal child pornography charges, including production and coercion and enticement of a minor. Another factor no one could have predicted: James Dale Ritchie, who could prove to bethe most prolific killer in AnchoragesinceJoshua Wade, though APD is not ready to call him that. Anchorage Police Department personnelwere investigating a fatal shooting near 15th Avenue and E Street early Sept. 13, 2016. Alaska Native Man's Unsolved Murder Part of 'Epidemic' Legal Statement. ThatFriday, she dropped him off for an evening out downtown. And he blamed the dysfunction not on managers but on spending plans and policy decisions made by Alaska governors and lawmakers over the years, and continuing to this day. 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. Among those charged is Darin Schilmiller, whom authorities say presented himself as the millionaire Tyler from Kansas, using a fake photograph. Other witnesses described seeing a bloody man threatening to jump off the ship. It's unclear who the woman is, but authorities are working to identify her and determine how she died. This story was produced as part of a collaboration between Alaska Public Media and the Anchorage Daily News. 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. Alaska Public Media 2022. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Ritchie grew up in Anchorage and was a standout athlete at East High School in the mid-1990s before involvement in drugs led to a felony record that derailed his life. The millionaire's only demand for the payout was either . This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 21:52. (Obituary photo). Just two years ago, in 2014, Anchorage ended the year with 13 homicides on the books the lowest in two decades. The need for nine more lawyers was based on a 45-year-old standard set by the American Bar Association that public defenders annual caseloads should not exceed 150 felonies. Schauer shot Moren several times, police say, though they have not said why. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. April 23, 2021. Smith is originally from South Africa. Anchorage police say they've arrested a man for the murder of a woman whose body had been dumped a week ago on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage. Gardner was shot four times, according to the charging documents. His hair was long. Couple in Alaska cruise ship murder seemed like "perfect American All rights reserved. Passengers describe learning woman died aboard Alaska cruise ship What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? But I feel that in the air.". According to the Violence Policy Center, Alaska ranked number one in murder of women by men in incidents where there were one victim and one offender from 2014 through 2018. In February 2017, 37-year-old Brandy Sullivan, an Alaska Airlines customer-service agent who lived in an upscale Anchorage suburb, was allegedly shot and killed by her estranged husband.. He has not yet entered a plea. In a lot of ways I think it is generational," McKinnon said. According to police, the arrest came. Her body was found along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage on Oct. 2. 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. The memory card found along road shows an Anchorage man assaulting and killing woman. Don't kill me!" Eklutna Annie is the name given to an unidentified murder victim whose body was discovered in a wooded area, one mile south of South Eklutna Lake Road in Eklutna, Anchorage, Alaska, in July 1980. 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. The trial has been delayed at least 15 times at the request of the defense, according to MacDonalds order. "What we're seeing is that when we ask the community for assistance, they really respond to us," he said. But the same weapon found on Ritchie at the time of his death an uncommon, vintage Colt Python .357 was used to kill four other people in a two-month span: Brianna Foisy, 20, and Jason Netter Sr., 41, on the Ship Creek Trail July 3, and Bryant "Brie" De Husson, 25, and Kevin Turner, 34, at Valley of the Moon Park on Aug. 28. Deputy District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said the process calls for the case to be brought before a grand jury. All rights reserved. During an arraignment at Anchorage Jail Court Wednesday, a judge set Smiths bail at $750,0000 cash and appointed a public defender to represent him. [9][12] She stood between 4 ft 11 in and 5 ft 3 in, and her hair color ranged from light brown to strawberry-blond. Making the decision to leave, to start the processes for divorce or anything like that, that definitely would escalate the situation and increase lethality for that victim, Pearson said. The department is also trying to directly ask the public for help more often. 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. Last week, 23-year-old Darla Velador of Anchorage was stabbed to death. 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. Alaska Teen Killed Friend After Man Online Allegedly Offered $9M Police have only definitively named him as the gunman in one killing, that of Treyveon Thompson on July 29. Throughout 2016, Ritchie murdered upwards of five individuals in and around Anchorage, Alaska, most of whom were in parks or along bike paths. ' said APD communications director MJ Thim. He then attempted to placate her, before pulling a gun, saying: "You do exactly as I say and you won't get hurt. Witnesses say she was travelling with her children. There wasSelena Mullenax, a young mother studying for her GEDfound shotin a public park on a winter morning. Pilot Projects Launched to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous They are unwilling to share details of crimes in which charges have not been filed. According to the charges, his mother called to report the attack and Walters fired a shotgun when two Village Police Officers attempted to approach him. Or are people just angrier?" She deserves just as much as a search for her people as any other victim, as any other survivor. Lucas Moren himself had cleaned up the bloody scene of the machete attack on his mother. Anchorage police think the human remains belong to the woman seen on the memory card, and the medical examiner is working to confirm the connection and the cause of death. The SD card was labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, according to the affidavit. "That's our plan to create a better police presence," McKinnon said. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. The Public Defender Agencys budget, meanwhile, has grown by 9 percent in the past two years. data the agency has presented to the Legislature. Man arrested for murder after SD card with video of crime found on street. Police recognized the man in the videos as Brian Smith, an immigrant from South Africa police knew of from a previous investigation," according to the affidavit. An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint against him details a strange chain of events that led police to a trove of gruesome videos and photos. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. Alaska woman catfished by Indiana man pleads guilty to murder Published: Jan. 27, 2022 at 4:27 PM PST. 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.. ANCHORAGE - Following a three-week trial in U.S. District Court, a federal jury convicted an Anchorage man on charges of murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, using a firearm to commit murder in a drug trafficking crime, drug conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. TENNESSEE COLLEGE STUDENT ACCUSED OF FATAL SHOOTING IN DORM. After troopers arrived, Doubek was given first aid and taken to a hospital. When substance misuse and mental health problems are part of the dynamic, it heightens the risk, she said. Police are careful not to blame victims of violent crimes. The majority of victims were killed by someone they knew. Copyright 2021 KTUU. An update released by Anchorage Police four months later stated they had taken a then 21-year-old named Orion Lind into custody but no charges were brought over Brandon's murder. A corrections officer told the court Doubek was on suicide protocols and unable to participate. McKinnon said police are still trying to piece together what Ritchie did on a daily basis during the months he is believed to have been back in Anchorage. The next year,that number nearly doubled, to 25. In the years since, he'd helped her live with lasting injuries. He had started Friday night with two of the people closest to him: family friend Ronda Marcy and his mother, Elann "Lennie" Moren. According to court documents and evidence presented . The Alaska teens are being represented by the public defenders office, which has a policy of not commenting on cases. Suzi Pearson, executive director for the Abused Womens Aid in Crisis shelter in Anchorage, said the decision to split up or leave a relationship can be a particularly dangerous time in the life of a woman experiencing domestic violence. The Newman Family Murders. Who brutally assaulted and killed Nancy On Sept. 30, someone called Anchorage police claiming to have found an SD card containing video of a homicide. On the whole they are to be commended for all they do in the face of serious institutional limits, he wrote. He has since been released, now in the custody of authorities, and is charged with first- and second-degree murder. Even after that request was granted, Steiner said at a legislative budget hearing in March that he needed at least nine more lawyers, on top of an existing staff of roughly 75 criminal attorneys, to fulfill the agencys constitutional obligations. [1], "Identifying [Eklutna Annie] means that no matter how you lived, whatever circumstances that you are in, that even after death, there is an equality here. Police have not yet pointed to any known motive in the cases where Ritchie is identified as a suspect. APD asked morning commuters to avoid the area. Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . (In addition to the 75 criminal attorneys, about 25 more work on appeals and childrens cases.) The case marks the second killing in less than six months involving a video. Reporter Jeff Parrott contributed to this story. Officials allege they destroyed some of Hoffmans clothing, purse and cellphone, and Brehmer texted Hoffmans family to let them know they dropped her off at Polar Bear Park in Anchorage. 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. has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, and was taken to Anchorage Jail. Advocate for missing and murdered women, reflecting on the ongoing efforts to identify Eklutna Annie[18], Eklutna Annie remains unidentified. In that case, her father was charged with the killing. The Alaska Public Defender Agencys longtime director, Quinlan Steiner, announced his resignation in April. The FBI is investigating the death because it occurred in US waters. Police did not say why the SD card was in the street, but they believe Smith recorded the images himself, according to the AP. Smith has a truck matching the one in the images, and pings from his cellphone put him along Rainbow Valley Road off the Seward Highway, near where the womans body was found, within minutes of the last time-stamped photos of the body, the affidavit said. His wife is not implicated in the slaying. [1], Last edited on 18 February 2023, at 21:52, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, "Eklutna Annie: Put The Focus Back on Me! The woman, who has not yet been identified, is described as having long dark hair and possibly being Alaska Native. 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. Detectives knew almost immediately that something was wrong, that someones loved one was killed when they found her remains, he said. Overwhelmingly, people were killed with guns: Gunfire was involved in all but four of the year's homicides. He also allegedly told authorities that he and Brehmer discussed killing another person, but the plan was abandoned, and he admitted to blackmailing Brehmer into raping people. The victim was Robert Pfeil, a 55-year-old senior pilot for Alaska Airlines, who was shot from another car as he drove from work on Oct. 12, 1985. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. Doubek and Gardner shared a home in a Wasilla neighborhood off of Snowshoe Lane. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Resources: If you are facing threatened or actual domestic violence, please discreetly call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or Abused Womens Aid in Crisis in Anchorage at 907-272-0100. It's not that clear-cut, said McKinnon. In 2011 and 2012, Ritchie was named to the President's List at Blue Mountain Community College in Weyers Cave, in western Virginia, according to school documents obtained by Alaska Dispatch News. [17], To date, Roxane Easland, Karen Evan, Megan Emerick, and Teresa Davis have been ruled out as being Eklutna Annie. Doubek did not attend his scheduled arraignment Thursday. He was returning to Anchorage, where he lives, Thim said. The organization had previously released a digital reconstruction, and a clay bust of Eklutna Annie had also been created in the past. Here, "it's more groups of people who know each other and engage in high-risk behavior together," he said. 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. For all the good the internet can do, it can be a very dark place, Bryan Schroder, the U.S. attorney in Alaska, said at a news conference Tuesday.