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People move to the Alaska wilderness either because they enjoy solitude and crave a subsistence lifestyle or because they wish to escape society. People who fall into this second category are either misfits who don’t know how or don’t want to blend in with others, or they are criminals, seeking to escape arrest and hoping to disappear into the vast wilderness. Many of my episodes have dealt with individuals who ran to Alaska from a life of crime elsewhere. They might have hoped to turn their lives around but instead, most brought their problems and psychopathic tendencies with them.
Until Memorial Day weekend in 1997, Paul Stavenjord seemed to have succeeded at escaping his criminal past, but then something in him snapped, leaving two people dead and forever altering the course of Stavenjord’s life.
Sources:
Brennan, Tom, 2003. Murder at 40 Below. Chapter 7: “The bank robber next door.” 2001. Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press.
Court of Appeals of Alaska, no. A-7418. Stavenjord v. State. March 28, 2003.
Ice Cold Killers. Season 1, Episode 3: “Mountain man.”
Menerey, Amy. “Convicted murderer’s appeal denied.” April 8, 2003. Mat Su Valley Frontiersman.
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MASSACRE AT BEAR CREEK LODGE
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Robin Barefield is the author of five Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, and Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge. She has also written two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. Sign up to subscribe to her free monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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Sources:
Neighbors suspected Elmer Haab was up to no good, and when his wife, Bonnie, mysteriously disappeared, they feared Elmer had done something to her. Alaska State Troopers also found the disappearance of Bonnie Haab suspicious, but with no body, there was little they could do.
Anderson, Diane. “Man admits he cremated body of his wife.” July 16, 1969. Anchorage Daily Times.
Manley Hot Springs, located 160 miles west of Fairbanks, marks the end of the road, where civilization meets wilderness, and the boat landing in Manley Hot Springs offers the last portage for fishermen, trappers, and wanderers to launch their boats and travel further up the icy Tanana River. Because the road ends in Manley, residents admit they see their share of drifters and people trying to escape from somewhere or something. When Michael Silka arrived in Manley on Monday, May 13, 1984, folks accepted him as another straggler searching for a new life. They should have been terrified. Michael Silka was about to forever change sleepy Manley Hot Springs.
Alaska has spawned a long list of serial killers from the gold rush era in the early 1900s to the present day. Is Brian Steven Smith the latest member of this notorious fraternity?
The brutal murders in 1987 of a mother and her two daughters terrified the residents of Anchorage. Who would commit such a barbaric act, and would he strike again?
