You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Or are people just angrier?" James Dale Ritchie was a senior at East High School in 1994. 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. 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. A Wasilla woman was shot four times at home Sunday night and her husband is charged with her murder, according to Alaska State Troopers. It's not that clear-cut, said McKinnon. Brehmer agreed to commit the murder for him.. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 21:52. A memorial for James Lucas Moren in an alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016. Last week, 23-year-old Darla Velador of Anchorage was stabbed to death. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. He also told them hehad shot another woman and revealed where he dumped her body. Shannon Duke. Legal Statement. 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 I feel that in the air.". In September, the death of a man in the middle of a busy intersectionshut down anelementary school and a middle schoolwhile police investigated the killing. What science tells us about the afterlife. Alaska Public Media 2022. "He had a leather jacket on and blue jeans, with a hoodie. 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. Nancy Furlow . Little is known about Smith, the man charged. McKinnon pointed out that in the same year Anchorage set a homicide record, it also set a record for thenumber of touristsvisiting the city. 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. 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. Hoffman was allegedly best friends with Brehmer, and she was chosen by the group as the victim, the documents say. ' said APD communications director MJ Thim. Brehmer then enlisted the help of four friends, including 19-year-old Caleb Leyland, 16-year-old Kayden McIntosh and two other unnamed juveniles, to plan and carry out the murder at Schilmillers direction, according to the documents. The domestic violence-related cases range from amother accused of suffocating her infant daughter,to a man accused of fatally shootinghis son-in-law. Police solved an Alaskan murder with a memory card found along road. 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. Doubek slept downstairs. The group met to decide how they would divvy up the money. On Wednesday,. 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. Do you know this baby? 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. 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 January 2013, an associate professor wrote a letter of recommendation for Ritchie, who was apparently applying for an internship. He warned Metzger against scurrying around in district court, spending time on lesser felony cases instead of the homicide case, according to her motion. It appeared that Smith recorded them himself, according to the affidavit. Anna Bill, a former Mountain Village police officer honored by the Alaska Federation of Natives for her advocacy on behalf of Alaska Native women and children, said the homicide was devastating for the victims family. The memory card was labeled "homicide at midtown Marriott" and contained 39 images and 12 videos of an assault and murder. Digital evidence and statements show Brehmer was communicating with and sending videos and/or photographs of the events surrounding the incident to Schilmiller at his directive through the duration of the event, documents say. He was returning to Anchorage, where he lives, Thim 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. Months before the alleged hit . Anchorage police identified thesecond victim as Veronica Abouchuk. Brian Steven Smith during his arraignment Wednesday. When is Eurovision and how do you get tickets? 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. In May, 19-year-old Brandon Merritt went to a Holiday gas station and exchanged words with another man, according to police. [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]. Alaskas public defenders have argued for the past two years that rising caseloads and tight budgets are straining their ability to fulfill their constitutional obligation to represent their clients. In some villages, city and tribal leaders say they have no choice but to hire convicted criminals as cops. 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. Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, the womans body was found along Turnagain Arm, near the Rainbow trailhead. Detectives recognized Brian Steven Smith from the graphic videos because Smith is involved in a separate ongoing investigation, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman MJ Thim. 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. An economic thing happening? 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. 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. All rights reserved. But the 2016 toll also reflects one extraordinary factor:a potential serial killer apparently targeting strangers. An autopsy report concluded that she had been killed by a single stab wound to the back. Denali Brehmer, 22, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in the June 2019 death of Cynthia Hoffman, the Alaska Department of Law said. Photos apparently show the woman underneath a blanketon a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, per the document. APD provided a recent photograph of Ritchie. Witnesses say she was travelling with her children. 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. Detectives arrested Smith at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to APD. All rights reserved. (Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News). The . The caller told police the memory card had been found laying in the middle of the street of an Anchorage neighborhood. All rights reserved. In September 2020, a revised facial reconstruction of the victim was released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. With the SD card, one of the first questions that detectives had to answer was, Was this staged, or did this really happen? [3][4], Eklutna Annie was murdered by serial killer Robert Hansen, most likely in 1979. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Content Warning: This article contains information that might be difficult for some readers. The case marks the second killing in less than six months involving a video. Smith is charged with first-degree murder. One man, James Dale Ritchie, is the prime suspect in five deaths. 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.. APDsays when Moren left the Gaslight Lounge later that night,he was followedby Roy Schauer, 46. 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. die.". 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. 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. 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. And they say despite the number of killings, suspects are at large in very few of the cases. When troopers arrived, they found Doubek lying just inside the front door. "That's our plan to create a better police presence," McKinnon said. The record in this case should reflect that, as a result of the policy and budget choices made by the legislative and executive branches the people of Alaska must tolerate long delays in the prosecution of the type of crimes charged in this case crimes against women, crimes fueled by substance abuse, crimes against law enforcement officers, crimes against rural Alaskans, the judge wrote. 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. Veronica Abouchuck, left, and Kathleen Henry. MacDonald, who was appointed by then-Gov. 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. 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. The callertold police the memory card was found layingin the middle of the street in the Fairview neighborhood of Anchorage. Brian Steven Smith is arraigned Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019 on a charge of first-degree murder at the Anchorage Jail courtroom. Catfishing is when a person creates a fake identity on a social network account to deceive a specific victim. [16], Hansen was sentenced to 461 years in prison without the possibility of parole for her murder and three others. 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. Ritchie is considered the main suspect in those killings, said Markiewicz. A woman in Alaska was walking her dog when a moose charged her from behind and kicked her in the head, according to shocking video captured by a bystander. Market data provided by Factset. APD officer Arn Salao was wounded and the suspect, James Dale Ritchie, was killed in the early-morning shootout. Anchorage police identified the second victim as Veronica Abouchuk. Our salaries up here used to be the draw, an attorney for the agency said. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. "She championed any child. The Alaska Public Defender Agencys longtime director, Quinlan Steiner, announced his resignation in April. 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. 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. MacDonald denied the request, saying his findings are not an indictment of the Alaska Public Defender Agency nor its attorneys. But there are plenty of public defender offices in the Lower 48 who are offering those exact salaries right now with lower cost of living and more stability in their government and their budget., The public defender agency asked that MacDonald be disqualified from the Mountain Village case because of his bias against the agency and Walters, the defendant. 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. Other witnesses described seeing a bloody man threatening to jump off the ship. 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. Officials said there was no indication Hoffman was sexually assaulted. [Here are the most-read Alaska Dispatch News stories of 2016]. TODAY - Anna Kaplan 18h. The year's final tally surpasses even the 29 deathsthat occurred in 1995, at the time attributed by officials to gang and drug activity. Anchorage Police investigate the scene where human remains we found at mile 108 of the Seward Highway near Rainbow on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. 2019, on charges of murder in Anchorage, Alaska. "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. So far, nothing has been found. Feds: Eagle River nurse prescribed 4 million opiates in 5 years, contributed to two overdose deaths. I'll stand behind him, beside him, while he's going through this," Bissland added. The SD card was labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, according to the affidavit. Contact her at mtheriault@adn.com. 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. Copyright 2021 KTUU. Warming water may be to blame. When substance misuse and mental health problems are part of the dynamic, it heightens the risk, she said. 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. Legal Statement. "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. You're going to kill me!" All rights reserved. CALIFORNIA MAN SENTENCED AFTER FORMER ROOMMATE FOUND DEAD, BLUDGEONED INSIDE WALL. Princess Cruises said 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares of Utah. [7] He further recollected: "I picked her up downtown and told her I was going to take her to my home". 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. 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. Time stamps on the images at the hotel showed they were taken in the early hours of Sept. 4, the affidavit said. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, Charlie was sentenced to 75 years . He always committed his murders at night, often around midnight or a short time after. 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. Policeinvestigate the scene of an officer-involved shooting in downtown Anchorage onNovember 12, 2016. "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.
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