MacDonald wrote that in addition to the Mountain Village case, hes overseeing two other homicide trials and a sexual assault case that have all been significantly delayed due to a public defender withdrawing late into the case.. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Alaska teens charged in 'murder for millions' slaying | AP News Published: Jan. 27, 2022 at 4:27 PM PST. At one June hearing, shortly before she resigned, the public defender noted she was working a double case load. Ian Bobich, 29, was found shot to death outside this Elm Street apartment building just before midnight Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, on Government Hill. Ritchie, the 40-year-oldkilled in a downtown shootout with policeafter he wounded an officer in an encounter early Nov. 12, is the prime suspect in the deaths of five people in 2016, APD said. Each of the three men died from gunshot wounds. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen). Brian Steven Smith, a 48-year-old reportedly from South Africa, was arrested at Ted Stevens International Airport after investigators linked him to the crime. Her body was found along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage on Oct. 2. 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. A handwritten note laid on a nearby bench with the words Shes havin an affair proof is in the phone. I was the only one there, I did that, I killed her, he told investigators, according to the charges. 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.. The Alaska teens are being represented by the public defenders office, which has a policy of not commenting on cases. "James recognized the potential issue and has appropriate (sic) adjusted his behavior to make himself more inviting for others to seek help. Catfisher Convinced Alaska Teens to Murder a Developmentally Disabled The organization had previously released a digital reconstruction, and a clay bust of Eklutna Annie had also been created in the past. All rights reserved. The district covers an enormous and geographically diverse swath of Alaska, from the woodsy Alaska-Canada border in the Interior to the Bering Sea coast. 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. (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 . Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Smith onmurder and evidence tampering charges in Abouchuk's death. "Because of his knowledge other students identify him as a potential source of aid but may have been intimidated by his high level of self confidence," the letter said. According to police, the arrest came. He told Anchorage District Court Judge Brian Clark that he had about $2,000 in total saved. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) The Iditarod, the world's most famous sled dog race, starts Saturday with a fan-friendly ceremonial run through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. Authorities who have reviewed the videos and photos said they remembered Smith from another investigationand found he was registered in early September to a room at a local hotel that has carpet that matches the one seen in the footage. Murder of Eklutna Annie - Wikipedia ANCHORAGE, Alaska A woman pleaded guilty to murder after an Indiana man allegedly offered her $9 million to "rape and murder someone in Alaska." According to the Alaska Department of Law, 22-year-old Denali Brehmer admitting to killing 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman on June 29, 2019, near Thunderbird Falls in Chugiak, Alaska. The year's final tally surpasses even the 29 deathsthat occurred in 1995, at the time attributed by officials to gang and drug activity. In 2016, some 34 people were killed by homicide in Anchorage. Federal authorities allege Brehmer produced sexually explicit videos involving a minor and sent them to Schilmiller. "That's what's been fascinating.". According to online court records, no new trial date has been set in the killing of Gertrude Queenie. Reporter Jeff Parrott contributed to this story. All rights reserved. She disappeared without a trace. The final images on the card show the womans body face down in the bed of a pickup, and were time-stamped Sept. 6. Police said they will release the name of the deceased woman once her identity is confirmed and family is notified. There were no immediate details aboutthe earlierinvestigation involving Smith. Anchorage police identified the second victim as Veronica Abouchuk. New documents from Ritchie'stime at community collegein Virginiapresent a portrait of a striving engineering student whose work was so good that a professor wrote in a 2013 letter of recommendation that he gradedRitchie's exams first and used them as the test's key. Schilmiller admitted to federal agents and Indiana State Police his role in the plot, saying he chose Hoffman as the victim and he told Brehmer to kill her, according to the court documents. (Google). ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Alaska teens hoping to cash in on a $9 million offer from a Midwest millionaire brutally killed a developmentally disabled woman on a popular trail outside Anchorage, shooting her in the back of the head and dumping her body in a river, authorities allege. In June, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr declared a public safety emergency in the state, announcing $10.5 million in funding for village police, equipment and public safety buildings. Indiana man enters not guilty pleas in Alaska murder plot An Alaska resident found a stray SD card lying on the street in late September and discovered gruesome content inside: images and video of a woman appearing to be assaulted and murdered. About three weeks before Hoffman was killed, Brehmer and Schilmiller began discussing a plan to rape and murder someone in Alaska, according to court documents. [3][4], Eklutna Annie was murdered by serial killer Robert Hansen, most likely in 1979. Little is known about Smith, the man charged. Anchorage police investigate a fatal shooting at the Holiday Gas Station located on Abbott Road on Wednesday evening, May 25, 2016. "That's our plan to create a better police presence," McKinnon said. Moody, the Alaska Public Defender Agency supervisor, said there are currently 11 vacant attorney positions out of 98 statewide. MacDonald serves as the presiding judge for the Fairbanks-based Fourth Judicial District. Missing and murdered indigenous women cold case office - Anchorage, AK Without a doubt, the new director will get this order for a variety of reasons, and will be thinking about how we can do things more efficiently, Moody said. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. April 23, 2021. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. ", Autumn Smith. 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. The race is on: What to know about the 2023 Iditarod, No injuries in downtown Anchorage commercial building collapse. [8] He died in prison in August 2014. 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. Doubek did not attend his scheduled arraignment Thursday. Smith remained in jail on Wednesday where he is being held on an outstanding warrant. 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. Pilot Projects Launched to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous (Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News via AP), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. But the 2016 toll also reflects one extraordinary factor:a potential serial killer apparently targeting strangers. Overwhelmingly, people were killed with guns: Gunfire was involved in all but four of the year's homicides. or redistributed. In that case, her father was charged with the killing. Veronica Abouchuck, left, and Kathleen Henry. A man charged with murder is accused of fatally stabbing his 23-year-old daughter Friday in Anchorage's Fairview neighborhood. "Is it a greater population? Smiths wife of five years, Stephanie Bissland, told KTUU on Oct. 10 that Smith was a good husband, and she did not believe the allegations against him. [5][3][10], An autopsy of Eklutna Annie's body revealed she was petite in stature,[11] and most likely white, although she may have had a degree of Native American heritage. Witness memories fade, Skidmore said. "I'd say a great number of our citizens don't engage in any activity that's considered dangerous.". has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, and was taken to Anchorage Jail. Smith appeared in court Wednesday, where a judge said he'd be appointed a public defender. [7] He further recollected: "I picked her up downtown and told her I was going to take her to my home". Legal Statement. In September 2020, a revised facial reconstruction of the victim was released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The REAL Deaths Behind The Show (Episode Guide) - Emma Cruises Catfishing is when a person creates a fake identity on a social network account to deceive a specific victim. All the white people are getting done first while the Natives get pushed to the back burner, Bill wrote in a Facebook message, when asked about the case. Smith is originally from South Africa. Nancy Furlow . 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. Princess Cruises said 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares of Utah. 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. Thim declined to say anything about the other investigation, or whether Smith is a suspect in other crimes. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. She said she was not a police officer in the village at the time of the killing. He then attempted to placate her, before pulling a gun, saying: "You do exactly as I say and you won't get hurt. At the sentencing hearing, the State presented video . The motion filed by Walters new public defender, Julia Metzger, cited MacDonalds comments in hearings over the summer, including remarks about the public defender agency neglecting clients and accusing its attorneys of complete abandonment and total disregard of professional responsibilities., Metzger said MacDonald launched into a 17-minute diatribe at a July 18 hearing, during which he predicted the public defender agency might continue to delay the Mountain Village homicide trial until 2020. 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. 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 womans body was found last week along the Seward Highway south of the city. That puts APD at a more than 90 percent "clearance" rate for homicide cases. The majority of victims were killed by someone they knew. 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. It did not include those deaths. 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. Rodgers went on to kill another man in Anchorage and shoot two others who survived before his 26-hour rampage ended. Gardner slept upstairs. The videos show a woman being strangled and in one Smith can be heard saying just die. The videosshow Henry face down in the back of a truck. [9] A box of Salem matches were found in a pocket of her jacket, indicating she may have been a smoker. They were all going to spend Christmas together the next day. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, MacDonalds ruling addresses some of the most urgent problems facing Alaskas criminal justice system, where policymakers and the public have increasingly turned their focus in recent years. Federal Jury Convicts Anchorage Man on Murder and Drug Charges The department is also trying to directly ask the public for help more often. Prosecutors: Anchorage cold case murder started with gunfire, ended in The woman, who has not yet been identified, is described as having long dark hair and possibly being Alaska Native. An Alaskan murder mystery has been solved thanks to a SD card found laying in the street. The victim was also wearing several pieces of jewelry, including an apparently handmade metal bracelet containing three turquoise stones,[2][8] a copper necklace containing shell beads, a pendant heart, a Timex metal wristwatch consisting of circular links and with a brown watch face, a ring carved from shell jewelry, and gold-plated, twisted metal hoop earrings. The victim has been identified as 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares, from the US state of Utah. Police solved an Alaskan murder with a memory card found along road. Witnesses say she was travelling with her children. On Christmas Day, the people who loved Lucas Moren gathered in the alley behind the Gaslight.