ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Content Warning: This article contains information that might be difficult for some readers. 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. 2019, on charges of murder in 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. A corrections officer told the court Doubek was on suicide protocols and unable to participate. "We are working on the Ship Creek case still and the Valley of the Moon Park," said Markiewicz. 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. Could a bigger prize and more races boost interest? He had then stabbed her once in the back with a black-handled Buck knife as she lay face-down. The case remains open, and numerous efforts have been made to determine the identity of the decedent, including several forensic facial reconstructions of how she may have appeared in life. Schauer shot Moren several times, police say, though they have not said why. Advocate for missing and murdered women, reflecting on the ongoing efforts to identify Eklutna Annie[18], Eklutna Annie remains unidentified. 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. Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . After Mr. Mackay and the pilot's sister, Muriel . Mike Dunleavy named Steiners replacement Tuesday: Samantha Cherot of Anchorage, who has worked both as a public defender and a private criminal defense and family attorney. Police have not yet pointed to any known motive in the cases where Ritchie is identified as a suspect. We still dont know who she is and we dont know much about her," said Thim. She wore several articles of clothing, including a brown leather hip-length jacket, a light-colored knitted sleeveless shirt (possibly white, beige, or light gray in color), blue jeans, and red, knee-high, high-heeled, zip-up boots. The Public Defender Agencys budget, meanwhile, has grown by 9 percent in the past two years. According to court documents and evidence presented . Police point at recent hiring of new officers as an effort to make the city safer. ", Autumn Smith. All rights reserved. "That's what's been fascinating.". The department is also trying to directly ask the public for help more often. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Published: Jan. 27, 2022 at 4:27 PM PST. [4][7][n 1], Eklutna Annie's body was markedly decomposed, indicating her death had occurred months prior. The memory card found along road shows an Anchorage man assaulting and killing woman. The trial has been delayed at least 15 times at the request of the defense, according to MacDonalds order. / 61.1254; -149.5234. The images showed a naked woman being beaten on the floor of a hotel room, according to the affidavit. In September 2020, a revised facial reconstruction of the victim was released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Police and a crime scene investigation unit spent much of Tuesday afternoon and evening at the home where Smith lived with his wife, hauling away a black pickup, neighbors said. All rights reserved. But APD isnot ready to close the cases. 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. She is the only victim of Robert Hansen to remain unidentified. 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. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Veronica Abouchuck, left, and Kathleen Henry. McIntosh, who is being tried as an adult in the case, was the gunman, prosecutors say. It did not include those deaths. Among those charged is Darin Schilmiller, whom authorities say presented himself as the millionaire Tyler from Kansas, using a fake photograph. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 21:52. Sarah Palin in 2007, admonished public defenders for specific professional failures in their handling of Walters case. In court Wednesday, Smith appeared in handcuffs, wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit. If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance use disorder, help is available. An economic thing happening? 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. Legal Statement. 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. Market data provided by Factset. Anchorage Police Department personnelwere investigating a fatal shooting near 15th Avenue and E Street early Sept. 13, 2016. Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 17 are here. April 23, 2021. data the agency has presented to the Legislature. 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.. We learned sometimes the hard way in the past.". 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. A Snapchat video showed two of the teens accused of killing 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman near the Thunderbird Falls trailhead in June apparently discussing the crime. Doubek and Gardner shared a home in a Wasilla neighborhood off of Snowshoe Lane. According to online court records, no new trial date has been set in the killing of Gertrude Queenie. 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. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Smith onmurder and evidence tampering charges in Abouchuk's death. "They are engaging in this behavior where maybe a mature person would say, 'I'd never do that,' but to the people involved this is real stuff to them disrespect. "Loose lips sink ships," Markiewicz said. He was sentenced to 498 years in prison for the murder spree. 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. So far, nothing has been found. 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. Legal Statement. Slawomir Markiewicz, the Anchorage Police Department's top detective. Photos apparently show the woman underneath a blanketon a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, per the document. He always committed his murders at night, often around midnight or a short time after. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Police have not identified the victim, who is said to have been killed during the first week of September. 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. This story was produced as part of a collaboration between Alaska Public Media and the Anchorage Daily News. Police detectivesdon't attribute 2016's increase in homicides to any one cause. 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.. The woman attempted to fight back, the affidavit said. All but one of the victims in those cases were female. An earlier version of the chart in this story incorrectly stated that it included fatal officer-involved shootings and justifiable homicides. [6], On July 17, 1980, Eklutna Annie's skeletal remains were found by workmen, buried in a shallow grave along a series of power lines north of Anchorage. [8] He died in prison in August 2014. Authorities were expected to announce charges on the case on Thursday. "It depends on what we're looking at as far as danger," said McKinnon, speaking generally about citizen safety and homicides in 2016. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. They were all going to spend Christmas together the next day. 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. I'll stand behind him, beside him, while he's going through this," Bissland added. 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.. High winds cause damage, power outages across central Indiana . 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. 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. With the SD card, one of the first questions that detectives had to answer was, Was this staged, or did this really happen? The caller told police the memory card had been found laying in the middle of the street of an Anchorage neighborhood. The SD card also contained images of the womans body being removed from a hotel room and transported in a black truck, according to charging documents. Brian Steven Smith is arraigned Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019 on a charge of first-degree murder at the Anchorage Jail courtroom. Her eldest daughter Chloe was killed with her. 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. Theres a new fight over Bering Sea black cod. I was the only one there, I did that, I killed her, he told investigators, according to the charges. Police said they will release the name of the deceased woman once her identity is confirmed and family is notified. During the initial 911 call, Doubek reportedly had slurred, garbled speech and admitted to shooting his wife, according to the affidavit. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, APD officer Arn Salao was wounded and the suspect, James Dale Ritchie, was killed in the early-morning shootout. In 2016, some 34 people were killed by homicide in Anchorage. Police continued to investigate and interviewed her two days later after Snapchat video appeared, in which she appeared to confess, the documents say. In response, he chased after her, grabbed her by the hair and tripped her to the ground. She deserves just as much as a search for her people as any other victim, as any other survivor. 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. "I'd say a great number of our citizens don't engage in any activity that's considered dangerous.". Ritchie is considered the main suspect in those killings, said Markiewicz. 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. A separate 1998 audit done for the Alaska Legislature said the states public defenders can ethically handle no more than 59 cases in a 60-hour work week; by that standard, Steiner said at the March hearing, his agency needed 66 more lawyers to fulfill its constitutional obligations. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. According to police, the arrest came. Nearly a week prior, on Sept. 30, someone called Anchorage Policeclaiming to have "an SD card containing a video of a homicide," according to a press release from authorities. She has not been identified. Anchorage Police investigate the scene where human remains we found at mile 108 of the Seward Highway near Rainbow on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. After the death, the ship was diverted to the city of Juneau, in Alaska, and passengers were forced by investigators to remain on board for more than eight hours. Legal Statement. Human remains found along Seward Highway near Rainbow trailhead. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. He was unable to "remember whether she was a prostitute or [a] dancer", although he did state he believed she was from Kodiak, Alaska. Judges appoint public defenders for defendants who cant afford to hire their own lawyers. Many questions remain unanswered Wednesday, including the identity of the woman. 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. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! (Loren Holmes / ADN). (Obituary photo). 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. (Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News via AP), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 32. When troopers arrived, they found Doubek lying just inside the front door. Hansen specifically stated she was his first murder victim. [7] He further recollected: "I picked her up downtown and told her I was going to take her to my home". He has since been released, now in the custody of authorities, and is charged with first- and second-degree murder. In the Lower 48, gangs are more organized and act as outside-the-law businesses, pushing drugs and weapons in defined territories. At the sentencing hearing, the State presented video . Jorge Rea-Villa, a handsome tattoo artist who went to a Fourth of July barbecue and ended up dead. MacDonald, who was appointed by then-Gov. 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. [Here are the most-read Alaska Dispatch News stories of 2016]. It's unclear who the woman is, but authorities are working to identify her and determine how she died. 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. Alaska Public Media 2022. When is Eurovision and how do you get tickets? Troopers arrived hours later and interviewed Walters, who admitted to beating Queenie, his 22-year-old girlfriend, with his fists and a broom handle. On the whole they are to be commended for all they do in the face of serious institutional limits, he wrote. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. An Alaskan murder mystery has been solved thanks to a SD card found laying in the street. There wasSelena Mullenax, a young mother studying for her GEDfound shotin a public park on a winter morning. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 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". But the 2016 toll also reflects one extraordinary factor:a potential serial killer apparently targeting strangers. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Such delays typically benefit defendants and make it harder for prosecutors to secure convictions, said Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore. 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. Last week, 23-year-old Darla Velador of Anchorage was stabbed to death. 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. 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. According to police, the arrest came after someone reported finding a digital storage device containing video of the killing. Each of the three men died from gunshot wounds. 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.
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