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In the early morning hours of Monday, April 26, 1993, someone brutally raped, stabbed and shot Sophie Sergie in a college dorm on the University of Alaska campus in Fairbanks. Several hours later, a janitor discovered Sophie’s body stuffed in a bathtub in a second-floor bathroom in the dorm. No one saw or heard anything. Sophie’s case soon went cold and remained cold for the next 18 years. Would her murder ever be solved? 
Sources:
Alaska Department of Public Safety, State Troopers: Alaska Bureau of Investigation. “Cold Case Investigation Unit.” n.d. https://dps.alaska.
gov/ast/abi/cold case
Associated Press. “AST cold-case unit faces elimination.” April 10, 2015. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Bohman, Amanda. “New theory revives old murder case.” April 25, 2009. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Farneski, Anna. “Sergie was target of opportunity.” May 8, 1993. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Farneski, Anna. “While troopers hunt Sophie’s killer, family tries to cope.” July 8, 1993. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Nolan, Caitlin. “Genealogy DNA leads to arrest in 1993 murder of Alaska student found dead in dorm bathtub.” February 18, 2019. Inside Edition.
https://www.insideedition.com/genealogy-dna-leads-arrest-1993-murder-alaska-student-found-dead-dorm-bathtub-50844
Williams, Tess. “Jury finds Maine man guilty in Fairbanks cold-case murder.” February 10, 2022. Anchorage Daily News.
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Karluk Bones Audiobook Narrated by Beth Chaplin
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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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9-13-1987. We Alaskans. Anchorage Daily News.
In September 2000, Shelia Toomey, a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, wrote a front-page story about six unsolved homicides in Anchorage. The article displayed the photos of the six victims. All were women; five were Native Alaskan, and one was African American. Nothing connected the victims, and the police did not know if they were looking for one, two, or six murderers.
On a cold February night in 1921, Jack Sturgus, Anchorage’s first police chief, patrolled downtown Anchorage. He strolled past local businessman Oscar Anderson at 9:00 P.M., and they exchanged pleasantries, but what happened over the next few minutes constitutes one of the biggest mysteries in Anchorage history. At 9:30 P.M., night watchman John McNutt discovered Sturgus lying in an alley behind the Anchorage Drug Store and the Liberty Café near Fourth Avenue and E Street. Sturgus was bleeding from a single gunshot wound to the chest. The watchman summoned help, and several men carried Sturgus to the hospital. Sturgus kept mumbling about being cold and needing to be turned over. In the hospital, he complained about the bright lights. He repeatedly called, ‘Oh, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.” but when asked who shot him, he did not reply. Sturgus died at 10:50 P.M.
arrested anyone for his murder, and until now, no one has ever answered the question of who shot Jack Sturgus. Recent in-depth research by two Anchorage history buffs brings us as close as we will ever be to knowing what happened between 9:00 P.M. and 9:30 P.M. on February 20, 1921, in a back alley in the newly incorporated city of Anchorage, Alaska.
On September 6, 1992, two young hikers from Anchorage arrived at the old Fairbanks city bus #142, a makeshift shelter located on the Stampede Trail, twenty-five miles west of Healy. They immediately noted a stench emanating from the bus. A red leg warmer swung from an alder branch near the vehicle’s rear door. A note taped to the door terrified the hikers. It read:
Holland, Eva. 6-28-2020. Alaska Airlifts ‘Into the Wild’ Bus Out of the Wild. Outside Magazine. 
Stokes, Elisabeth Fairfield. 2017. Letters to Prison. Pacific Standard. 
Capps, Kris. 7-1-1988. Jury indicts man in death of Koonz. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
