A man has been arrested in connection to the murder of a woman aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska, police say, in what has been described as a "domestic disturbance". Nine months and a long Arctic winter have come and gone since the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 10-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr in the northwest Alaska hub community of Kotzebue.. Signs . Other images showed the woman covered in a white sheet, being moved through a parking lot to a truck. [sic] A manwith some sort of English accent can be heard in the video as well. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. I don't believe it.". Police are careful not to blame victims of violent crimes. Cellphone records trace Smith to having been at the place where the remains were found within minutes of when the last photo on the SD card was taken, police documents outline. The public defender representing Walters was juggling 200 cases and resigned due to mental exhaustion a week before the trial was to begin in July, according to the order. Alaska cops charged an Anchorage man with murder Tuesday after shocking videos found on a mysterious memory card allegedly captured the suspect assaulting and killing a woman whose remains. Gardner was a beloved community member, devoted mother and a part-owner of Hilltop Recycling, a long-standing staple of the Chugiak area, according to her family. In May, 19-year-old Brandon Merritt went to a Holiday gas station and exchanged words with another man, according to police. Anchorage police identified the second victim as Veronica Abouchuk. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Online court records did not list an attorney for Schilmiller. Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . 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. The judges order describes a disparity in the next phase of the criminal justice system the one that begins after a suspect is arrested and the clock starts ticking toward a timely resolution for defendant and victim. All rights reserved. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. 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. Other witnesses described seeing a bloody man threatening to jump off the ship. In arguments included with MacDonalds order, public defenders described an agency at its breaking point, struggling to retain experienced attorneys and unable to compete for recruits against cities with a lower cost of living and comparable pay. Rodgers went on to kill another man in Anchorage and shoot two others who survived before his 26-hour rampage ended. "Is it a greater population? 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. Sarah Palin in 2007, admonished public defenders for specific professional failures in their handling of Walters case. An ongoing Daily News and ProPublica investigation has found that one in three Alaska communities has no local law enforcement of any kind. It appeared that Smith recorded them himself, according to the affidavit. Schauer shot Moren several times, police say, though they have not said why. 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. The SD card was labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, according to the affidavit. 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. A man accused of killing a woman and recording it on an SD card later found in the street has been indicted in the murder of a second woman in Alaska, authorities announced Thursday. (In addition to the 75 criminal attorneys, about 25 more work on appeals and childrens cases.) The organization had previously released a digital reconstruction, and a clay bust of Eklutna Annie had also been created in the past. He was unable to "remember whether she was a prostitute or [a] dancer", although he did state he believed she was from Kodiak, Alaska. MacDonald, who was appointed by then-Gov. The . 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. 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. State prosecutors say Darin Lee Jones, 54, and Shawn Michael Phillips, 52, killed Patricia Phelps, 48, in Anchorage's Spenard neighborhood in 2017. Throughout 2016, Ritchie murdered upwards of five individuals in and around Anchorage, Alaska, most of whom were in parks or along bike paths. The victim has been identified as 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares, from the US state of Utah. 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. The three cases police still considerunsolved are the deaths of Marcus Cosby Jr., 24, Elijah Zeller, 18, and Ian Bobich, 29. The Public Defender Agencys budget, meanwhile, has grown by 9 percent in the past two years. Police have only definitively named him as the gunman in one killing, that of Treyveon Thompson on July 29. Detectives arrested Smith at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to APD. The millionaire's only demand for the payout was either . Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Investigators believe the remains along the highway belonged to the woman killed in the videos and they believe Smith killed her in early Septemberand recorded the photos and videos himself. Putting names to archive photos, China looks at reforms to deepen Xi's control, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, In photos: India's disappearing single-screen cinemas. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. All rights reserved. Theres a new fight over Bering Sea black cod. The death on Tuesday night triggered a lockdown of the 3,400-passenger ship. Federal authorities allege Brehmer produced sexually explicit videos involving a minor and sent them to Schilmiller. An autopsy report concluded that she had been killed by a single stab wound to the back. According to Hansen, Eklutna Annie had been wearing blue jeans, a sweater, and a brown leather jacket. [n 2], The remains of Eklutna Annie are interred at the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, under a marker reading "Jane Doe / Died 1980".[21][22]. Armando Velador Padilla, 46, was taken into custody after the. State lawmakers this year held the public defenders base budget effectively flat, though they included some $1.3 million, or a roughly 5 percent boost, in separate criminal justice legislation that was expected to generate more prosecutions. Moren, a patron at the bar, was shot and killed in the alley as the bar was closing early in the morning on Dec. 24. A handwritten note laid on a nearby bench with the words Shes havin an affair proof is in the phone. He had then stabbed her once in the back with a black-handled Buck knife as she lay face-down. Policeinvestigate the scene of an officer-involved shooting in downtown Anchorage onNovember 12, 2016. Its just really incredibly disheartening, Pearson said. After human remains were found along a highway just south of Anchorage two days after the memory card was found, police were able to start putting pieces together. [2][4], Serial killer Robert Hansen admitted responsibility for Eklutna Annie's murder in 1984. Legal Statement. Many of the victims were young. The next year,that number nearly doubled, to 25. 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. But they are working to build a case meeting the evidence threshold that would allow for prosecution, Markiewicz said. Smith appeared in court Wednesday, where a judge said he'd be appointed a public defender. Police said they will release the name of the deceased woman once her identity is confirmed and family is notified. Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com, Timothy Hoffman, right, father of slain teenager Cynthia Hoffman receives support from Edie Grunwald, left, who's son David Grunwald was murdered in Nov. 2016, as they entered a Superior courtroom for the arraignment of Cynthia's murder suspects in the Nesbett Courthouse on Tuesday, June 18, 2019 in Anchorage, Alaska. The graphic videos show a woman being strangled and a mans voice saying justdie, the Associated Press reported. [17], To date, Roxane Easland, Karen Evan, Megan Emerick, and Teresa Davis have been ruled out as being Eklutna Annie. The woman, who has not yet been identified, is described as having long dark hair and possibly being Alaska Native. Together, the homicides pose a question for Anchorage: What made 2016 so deadly? Homicide detectives began combing through the 39 images and 12 videos on the card, all documenting a horrifying scene of violence against an unknown woman. [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. 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. 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. [9] A box of Salem matches were found in a pocket of her jacket, indicating she may have been a smoker. His hair was long. A Wasilla woman was shot four times at home Sunday night and her husband is charged with her murder, according to Alaska State Troopers. Pilot Project sites will implement initial response plans for tribal communities' response to new missing and murdered persons cases Anchorage, Alaska - United States Attorney Bryan Schroder announced Alaska's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Pilot Project (Pilot Project) today. The district attorney's office also decided not to pursue criminal charges in the shooting death ofAaron Syvinski, 30, which was found to be in self-defense. 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. 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. CALIFORNIA MAN KIDNAPPED GIRL, 17, WHO WORKED WITH PALS TO NAB HIM IN THEIR OWN UNOFFICIAL OPERATION: COPS, There are 39 images and 12 videos on the card, according to a charging document filed by the Alaska Department of Law. She said he never exhibited any violent tendencies such as those she heard of from police. Market data provided by Factset. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 28, 2020 at 10:10 AM PDT. Police point at recent hiring of new officers as an effort to make the city safer. 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. But I feel that in the air.". A memorial for James Lucas Moren in an alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016. In January 2013, an associate professor wrote a letter of recommendation for Ritchie, who was apparently applying for an internship. Market data provided by Factset. 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. For many, it was the year the city's violence hit home,even if they didn't personally know any of the victims. Some people have speculated gangs are to blame for the bloodshed. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Fiesers account supports a complaint filed by prosecutors charging Doubek with the murder of his wife, 54-year-old Marjorie Gardner. "What we're seeing is that when we ask the community for assistance, they really respond to us," he said. 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. Veronica Abouchuck, left, and Kathleen Henry. [10], As Eklutna Annie struggled against his efforts to overpower her, she had screamed, "Don't kill me! Kyle Hopkins and Nat Herz, Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Smith onmurder and evidence tampering charges in Abouchuk's death. 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. die.". Little is known about Smith, the man charged. 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. Deputy District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said the process calls for the case to be brought before a grand jury. Reporter Jeff Parrott contributed to this story. 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. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Clayton Andrew Charlie, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a groundskeeper at the Alaska Zoo, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison. Police solved an Alaskan murder with a memory card found along road. 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. 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. The show Very Scary People profiled Robert Hansen in "The Butcher Baker". Her fiance was killed. I'll stand behind him, beside him, while he's going through this," Bissland added. "Loose lips sink ships," Markiewicz 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. Parents would be wise to monitor the activity of their children online.. But APD isnot ready to close the cases. "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. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. In 2004 a 40-year-old lady named Merrian was taking a cruise to Alaska on board the Celebrity Mercury. On the whole they are to be commended for all they do in the face of serious institutional limits, he wrote. According to police, the arrest came. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Seven Cold Case Task Force offices across the nation, dedicated to solving cold cases involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, are opening in the next few weeks, one expected to open in Anchorage. There were no immediate details aboutthe earlierinvestigation involving Smith. Slawomir Markiewicz, the Anchorage Police Department's top detective. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Princess Cruises said 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares of Utah. [4][7][n 1], Eklutna Annie's body was markedly decomposed, indicating her death had occurred months prior. Months before the alleged hit . 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. 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. 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. On Christmas Day, the people who loved Lucas Moren gathered in the alley behind the Gaslight. On Wednesday,. 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. Such delays typically benefit defendants and make it harder for prosecutors to secure convictions, said Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore. 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. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen). "It depends on what we're looking at as far as danger," said McKinnon, speaking generally about citizen safety and homicides in 2016. Advocate for missing and murdered women, reflecting on the ongoing efforts to identify Eklutna Annie[18], Eklutna Annie remains unidentified. Smith is originally from South Africa. According to Hansen, he had first attempted to placate Eklutna Annie as he restrained her, falsely claiming he did not intend to harm her, although she responded: "You are! 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. 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. Anchorage police identified thesecond victim as Veronica Abouchuk. 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.. 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. Smith originally pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, sexual assault and tampering in the death of his first victim, 30-year-old Kathleen Henry, before admitting to the crime. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Anchorage police say theyve arrested a man for the murder of a woman whose body had been dumped a week ago on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage. Of the 34 victims, 14 were under the age of 25. [16], Hansen was sentenced to 461 years in prison without the possibility of parole for her murder and three others. More than three dozenimages and 12 videos were stored on the card, according to the charging documents. This story was produced as part of a collaboration between Alaska Public Media and the Anchorage Daily News. Theres also the question of how an SD card containing images and videos of a slaying, labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, came to be discarded on a busy Anchorage street. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. She said she was not a police officer in the village at the time of the killing. At one point, the agencys seven-attorney Bethel office was down to three, he said. He then attempted to placate her, before pulling a gun, saying: "You do exactly as I say and you won't get hurt. On Sept. 30, police received a report from someone saying they had found an SD card containing several videos of an assault and murder. "One of the little girls from that room came running out, calling for help, that her parents had been in a fight," one passenger told CBS News. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. 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. (Loren Holmes / Alaska Dispatch News). Authorities were expected to announce charges on the case on Thursday. Lucas Moren himself had cleaned up the bloody scene of the machete attack on his mother. The state of Alaskas criminal justice system is operating on the fringes, barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner to Alaska (s) rising violent crime rates, Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael A. MacDonald wrote in a blistering Aug. 30 decision, which has previously not been reported. 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. LOUISIANA MAN ARRESTED IN 1989 MURDER CASE: POLICE. 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. 2019, on charges of murder in Anchorage, Alaska. According to Hansen, he persuaded Eklutna Annie to help him winch his pickup free from the mud, although when he began to drive his vehicle free, Eklutna Annie attempted to run. The woman attempted to fight back, the affidavit said. They were all going to spend Christmas together the next day. (Loren Holmes / ADN). (The motion argued that the judge misunderstood the limits on public defenders, who do not choose which charges are filed.). 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. All rights reserved. Early on Christmas Eve, James "Lucas" Moren became Anchorage homicide victimNo. According to police, the arrest came after someone reported finding a digital storage device containing video of the killing. The womans body was found last week along the Seward Highway south of the city. (Obituary photo). Thim said Smith was subsequently connected to the remains discovered on the highway through hotel records and cell-phone data. The Department of Law asked that Smith'sbond be set at $2 million. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. We still dont know who she is and we dont know much about her," said Thim. 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. 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. "She championed any child. According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, Charlie was sentenced to 75 years . However, when Eklutna Annie realized he was not driving in the direction of his home, she first asked him to drive her back to Anchorage, before he unsuccessfully attempted to convince her he was driving her to another safe location, claiming he was driving a "little further", to which Eklutna Annie replied, "Well, I'm not!" She had hit the wall, an acting supervisor later told the judge. Tracy Hansen and her dog, Gunner, were walking on the sidewalk in Anchorage, Alaska, when she was suddenly knocked to the ground, she told NBC . 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 killings happened in nearly every corner of Anchorage: from an Eagle River apartment complex toa normally quietsouth-sidesubdivision. Last week, 23-year-old Darla Velador of Anchorage was stabbed to death. Alaska Public Media 2022. After Mr. Mackay and the pilot's sister, Muriel . 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. Hoffman, 19, died from a gunshot wound to the. He worked in construction and kitchens, said Marcy, a paralegal. The group met to decide how they would divvy up the money. The State Medical Examiner Office is working to confirm her identity and manner of death. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Brian Steven Smith, 48, admitted to detectives that he was the man inimages and videos from the card, according to a document filed by the state Department of Law. 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. or redistributed. Hansen specifically stated she was his first murder victim. Ritchie is considered the main suspect in those killings, said Markiewicz. According to the affidavit, the couple had separate bedrooms. [5][3], This unidentified decedent became known as Eklutna Annie due to the location in which her body was discovered. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. Police did not say why the SD card was in the street, but they believe Smith recorded the images himself, according to the AP. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. Her eldest daughter Chloe was killed with her. 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. [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. A 22-year-old Alaska woman pleaded guilty to murdering her 19-year-old "best friend" in 2019 after a man who was allegedly catfishing her offered her $9 million to kill someone. All rights reserved. (Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News). Smith is charged with first-degree murder. TODAY - Anna Kaplan 18h. ", "DNA Match IDs Alaska Serial Killer's Victim After 37 Years", https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14666142/?ref_=ttep_ep3, https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2020/09/22/do-you-know-this-woman/, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Eklutna_Annie&oldid=1140185336, Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, Anchorage, Alaska. 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. Thim said the arrest hinged on two aspects of the investigation: the citizen who chose to call police when they found that card, and the coordination between law enforcement agencies handling the separate cases of the videos and the body. 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. McKinnon pointed out that in the same year Anchorage set a homicide record, it also set a record for thenumber of touristsvisiting the city.
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