A man charged with murder is accused of fatally stabbing his 23-year-old daughter Friday in Anchorage's Fairview neighborhood. Do you know this baby? Anthoney and his girlfriend moved to Anchorage from Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1985 when authorities in Idaho accused him of raping and brutally beating a twelve-year-old girl at a campground near Twin Falls. Smith is charged with first-degree murder. [10], As Eklutna Annie struggled against his efforts to overpower her, she had screamed, "Don't kill me! 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. 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. Eklutna Annie is still unidentified, despite her face being reconstructed in both 3-D and 2-D.[4][23] Several missing women are believed to have also been murdered by Hansen. 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. An economic thing happening? Among those charged is Darin Schilmiller, whom authorities say presented himself as the millionaire Tyler from Kansas, using a fake photograph. All rights reserved. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. But the 2016 toll also reflects one extraordinary factor:a potential serial killer apparently targeting strangers. Skidmore said the number of prosecutors is rebounding following a reduction years earlier and now includes more than 120 attorneys. We learned sometimes the hard way in the past.". All rights reserved. That puts APD at a more than 90 percent "clearance" rate for homicide cases. Legal Statement. Parents would be wise to monitor the activity of their children online.. Gardner slept upstairs. 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, 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. (The motion argued that the judge misunderstood the limits on public defenders, who do not choose which charges are filed.). 32. [4][7][n 1], Eklutna Annie's body was markedly decomposed, indicating her death had occurred months prior. MacDonald denied the request, saying his findings are not an indictment of the Alaska Public Defender Agency nor its attorneys. Anchorage Police investigate the scene where human remains we found at mile 108 of the Seward Highway near Rainbow on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. Market data provided by Factset. 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. The SD card was labeled Homicide at midtown Marriott, according to the affidavit. 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. At one point, the agencys seven-attorney Bethel office was down to three, he said. 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. Brian . The images showed a naked woman being beaten on the floor of a hotel room, according to the affidavit. (Loren Holmes / Alaska Dispatch News). "Is it a greater population? TODAY - Anna Kaplan 18h. Doubek did not attend his scheduled arraignment Thursday. Police are careful not to blame victims of violent crimes. 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. A memorial for James Lucas Moren in an alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016. Jorge Rea-Villa, a handsome tattoo artist who went to a Fourth of July barbecue and ended up dead. Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll told reporters Abouchuk's family reported her missing in February, but he said she had. In September 2020, a revised facial reconstruction of the victim was released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 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. Troopers arrived hours later and interviewed Walters, who admitted to beating Queenie, his 22-year-old girlfriend, with his fists and a broom handle. [3][4], Eklutna Annie was murdered by serial killer Robert Hansen, most likely in 1979. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. 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. His hair was long. In May, 19-year-old Brandon Merritt went to a Holiday gas station and exchanged words with another man, according to police. The department is also trying to directly ask the public for help more often. Brian Smith . CLICK TO VISIT THE ALL-NEW FOXBUSINESS.COM. Smith had registered a room at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott the night the video was taken, according to the affidavit. 2023 BBC. (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 . The womans body was found last week along the Seward Highway south of the city. Last week, 23-year-old Darla Velador of Anchorage was stabbed to death. 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. 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. she said. 2019, on charges of murder in Anchorage, Alaska. 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. Smith came to Alaska from South Africa about five years ago and became a naturalized U.S. citizen last month, according to the bail memo. The Associated Press contributed to this report. "That tells us other people believe it is a good place," he said. Around 2010, he left Alaska and spent time in Las Vegas before moving to Virginia, where his parents now live. As Merritt approachedAndrew Robertson-Goughnor, police said, Robertson-Goughnor shot him. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. He told Anchorage District Court Judge Brian Clark that he had about $2,000 in total saved. Brehmer agreed to commit the murder for him.. "Same exactly happens to homicide cases. 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. (Bill Roth / ADN). The caller later told officers the card a small memory card used in portable digital devices was discarded on the street at the corner of Fairbanks Street and 13th Avenue in Fairview, near the Gambell Carrs store. [5][3], This unidentified decedent became known as Eklutna Annie due to the location in which her body was discovered. It did not include those deaths. He moved back to Alaska in the spring of 2016. The killings happened in nearly every corner of Anchorage: from an Eagle River apartment complex toa normally quietsouth-sidesubdivision. MacDonald serves as the presiding judge for the Fairbanks-based Fourth Judicial District. While the agencys inflation-adjusted spending has doubled in the past 30 years, its felony caseload has tripled, it says. 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. James Dale Ritchie was a senior at East High School in 1994. According to court documents, Denali Brehmer, 18, confessed to killing Cynthia Hoffman on June 2 at the . Contact her at mtheriault@adn.com. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 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. According to court papers, the group went off trail and followed a path to the bank of the Eklutna River, where Hoffman was bound, shot and thrown into the river. 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. 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. Time stamps on the images at the hotel showed they were taken in the early hours of Sept. 4, the affidavit said. 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". [Here are the most-read Alaska Dispatch News stories of 2016]. 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. 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. The Alaska Public Defender Agencys longtime director, Quinlan Steiner, announced his resignation in April. He was returning to Anchorage, where he lives, Thim said. State prosecutors say Darin Lee Jones, 54, and Shawn Michael Phillips, 52, killed Patricia Phelps, 48, in Anchorage's Spenard neighborhood in 2017. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? And they say despite the number of killings, suspects are at large in very few of the cases. Deputy District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said the process calls for the case to be brought before a grand jury. 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. When substance misuse and mental health problems are part of the dynamic, it heightens the risk, she said. During the initial 911 call, Doubek reportedly had slurred, garbled speech and admitted to shooting his wife, according to the affidavit. Alaska emergency officials issued an AMBER Alert for 8-month-old boy Ahmiri Chaney on Feb. 17, 2023. . TENNESSEE COLLEGE STUDENT ACCUSED OF FATAL SHOOTING IN DORM. Hoffman, 19, died from a gunshot wound to the. The group met to decide how they would divvy up the money. 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. Her fiance was killed. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com. MacDonalds order and decision are part of the ongoing effort to hold a criminal trial in Fairbanks for Walters, who was 34 when troopers arrested him Oct. 5, 2017, in Mountain Village on charges of murder, assault and evidence tampering. 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. IE 11 is not supported. I said to his mother how cool he looked like a prizefighter about to enter the arena.". ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Content Warning: This article contains information that might be difficult for some readers. 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. At 41, he was a bachelor. Police do not believe Ritchie was involved with any otherunsolved slayingsin 2016. 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. The Anchorage Police Department has identified the victim as Kathleen J. Henry, 30, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon. 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!" This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Police did not say why the SD card was in the street, but they believe Smith recorded the images himself, according to the AP. The next year,that number nearly doubled, to 25. Published: Jul. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Smith onmurder and evidence tampering charges in Abouchuk's death. has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, and was taken to Anchorage Jail. When a composite sketch of the man suspected in the death of TreyveonThompson was released, more than 190 people called in tips, McKinnon said. or redistributed. The three cases police still considerunsolved are the deaths of Marcus Cosby Jr., 24, Elijah Zeller, 18, and Ian Bobich, 29. On that day, close to midnight, 48-year-old Charles Doubek called 911 and told dispatchers his wife had been shot, according to a version of events relayed in an affidavit by Alaska State Trooper investigator Jason Fieser. 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. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. 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. Her family was not contacted and her items were removed from her cabin. Born in Montana but raised in Alaska, Duke married, raised three children and worked jobs including as a teacher's aide. Of the 34 victims, 14 were under the age of 25. Days later, on Oct. 2, police officers found human remains on the side of a highway. Or are people just angrier?" 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. With the SD card, one of the first questions that detectives had to answer was, Was this staged, or did this really happen? Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. At one June hearing, shortly before she resigned, the public defender noted she was working a double case load. (Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News). Human remains found along Seward Highway near Rainbow trailhead. He has not yet entered a plea. As of Oct. 9, police said they were still working with the state medical examiner to determine her identity and contact her next of kin. Authorities were expected to announce charges on the case on Thursday. Anchorage police investigate a fatal shooting at the Holiday Gas Station located on Abbott Road on Wednesday evening, May 25, 2016. Anchorage police identified thesecond victim as Veronica Abouchuk. Each of the three men died from gunshot wounds. (Scott Jensen / Alaska Dispatch News). According to online court records, no new trial date has been set in the killing of Gertrude Queenie. 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. 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. Of the34 homicides in 2016, all but three are considered solved, with police identifying at least a main suspect, according to Sgt. An autopsy report concluded that she had been killed by a single stab wound to the back. 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. Together, the homicides pose a question for Anchorage: What made 2016 so deadly? July 27, 2017 / 10:16 AM / CBS News A suspect is in custody Thursday morning after a woman was found dead on a cruise ship in Alaska. Anchorage police identified the second victim as Veronica Abouchuk. She said she was not a police officer in the village at the time of the killing. Mar 6th 600p DARLA Recently retired newly weds embark on their third tropical cruise in less than year. 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. 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. Brehmer and McIntosh used Leylands pickup on June 2 to take Hoffman on a hike at Thunderbird Falls, a popular location about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Photos apparently show the woman underneath a blanketon a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, per the document. 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. Nationally, the homicide clearance rate hovers around 64 percent, according to statistics from the FBI. Cynthia Hoffman. According to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, Charlie was sentenced to 75 years . 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [8] He died in prison in August 2014. It was first broadcast on May 9th, 2021. The . (Image from East High School 1994 yearbook and APD handout). 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. After Mr. Mackay and the pilot's sister, Muriel . 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. Rodgers went on to kill another man in Anchorage and shoot two others who survived before his 26-hour rampage ended. ", "Alaska State Troopers: Unidentified Body", "Serial Killer Robert Hansen Dies in Anchorage", "Serial Killer's Victim Exhumed In Alaska: Who Is 'Horseshoe Harriet'? An earlier version of the chart in this story incorrectly stated that it included fatal officer-involved shootings and justifiable homicides. Police detectivesdon't attribute 2016's increase in homicides to any one cause. More than three dozenimages and 12 videos were stored on the card, according to the charging documents. 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 trial has been delayed at least 15 times at the request of the defense, according to MacDonalds order. 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. His wife is not implicated in the slaying. [2][4], Serial killer Robert Hansen admitted responsibility for Eklutna Annie's murder in 1984. The woman, who has not yet been identified, is described as having long dark hair and possibly being Alaska Native. She disappeared without a trace. He was sentenced to 498 years in prison for the murder spree. Thursday evening Live Doppler 13 forecast - Feb. 9, 2023. Don't kill me!" Man arrested for murder after SD card with video of crime found on street. "[13], According to Hansen, he then drove in the direction of Eklutna Lake, with his vehicle eventually becoming stuck on a desolate road as he veered in the direction of a "muddy swamp". According to the bail memo, Alaska State Troopers earlier this year recovered a skull with a gunshot wound in an area near the location Smith later provided. Federal authorities allege Brehmer produced sexually explicit videos involving a minor and sent them to Schilmiller. Market data provided by Factset. "We are working on the Ship Creek case still and the Valley of the Moon Park," said Markiewicz. 2022 Anchorage Daily News. They are unwilling to share details of crimes in which charges have not been filed. She has not been identified. 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. Judges appoint public defenders for defendants who cant afford to hire their own lawyers. 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.
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