Sonya Ivanoff // 451
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Hope you're doing well today. Happy November, if you're listening when this episode comes out. I am so surprised that we didn't get any recommendations for this case over the years because I stumbled

Yeah, I'm kind of dumbfounded by that because this story, as you just mentioned, is so wild. Like the details are just crazy.

♪♪

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That's N-O-O-M dot com. In the early morning hours of August 11th, 2003, a 19-year-old indigenous woman set off on a walk through the rain alone after spending time with friends in her home of Nome, Alaska.

But when her roommate noticed her absence the following morning, she reported her missing to the local police. And just a day after doing so, her nude body was found shot to death in a gravel pit by an abandoned gold mine. As police put the puzzle pieces together, an unexpected suspect emerged and fast.

This is the story of Sonia Ivanoff. Sonia Dora Ivanoff was born on April 13th, 1984 in Uniclet, Alaska. This icy native fishing village is home to about 700 residents and is known for its salmon and king crab harvests.

And by the way, the name Uniclete means from the southern side due to it being the furthest south Inupiat community. The little village sits on the coast of the Norton Sound and is located about 400 miles northwest of Alaska's largest city, which is Anchorage. Sonia was the fourth of six children born to parents Larry and Maggie Ivanoff, and she had a super tight-knit bond with her family.

Growing up in Alaska in the 80s, the Ivanoff family lived in a humble three-bedroom home where Sonia shared a room with her sister. And they would, you know, dress up in funky outfits, put their hair in fluffy pigtails with colorful hair bands, and play around with makeup a ton. As a teen, Sonia grew into her tall physique and excelled as a top player on her high school's basketball team. I mean, she was 5'9".

5'11", so she was a very valuable player. But off the court, she was a dedicated and hardworking student who often made honor roll. While Alaska was certainly influenced by Western culture at this point, Sonia was very proud of all aspects of her Alaskan heritage. She loved the food and the traditional dancing, and she held a lot of value in family and community gatherings. And in a small village where everyone knew everyone...

Sonia was a total ray of sunshine who was warm-hearted and goofy, but she certainly wasn't afraid to speak her mind. When Sonia graduated from high school in 2002, she had dreams of attending college in Hawaii, which is obviously a drastically different landscape to the chilly, barren surroundings that she was accustomed to, which is probably what was so appealing about Hawaii. But Sonia was over the cold weather and ready for a change in climate.

However, upon graduating high school, not quite ready to make the trek to Hawaii just yet, Sonia instead first decided to move 145 miles away from home to the small coastal town of Nome, Alaska. While not quite as tiny as her hometown, Nome has a population of about 3,600 residents today and a very, very similar population back in 2003. So nonetheless, a small town.

In the early 1900s, Nome was a bustling hotspot for gold rush mining, but has since become much, much sleepier. So shortly after moving to Nome, Sonia moved into an apartment and took up a job as a receptionist at the Norton Sound Health Corporation. She started working and planned on saving money to make that eventual move to Hawaii. But until then, Sonia loved Nome and felt extremely safe in her new stomping grounds.

In Nome, Sonia entered the Arctic Native Brotherhood pageant, which is an Alaskan tradition where local participants competed in hopes of winning a financial prize. So, you know, hoping to score some extra money for college, Sonia proudly dressed in traditional attire, including a pair of furry mittens made by her aunt.

By the summer of 2003, Sonia's best friend from back home, Timree Towerak, followed in her footsteps, and 18-year-old Timree moved to Nome as well, where she and 19-year-old Sonia became roommates. The teens would hang out with friends, watch movies, and even play some games of basketball when the weather permitted. And to give you guys a visual, I did say that Nome was small, but it is also walkable, so the girls got around without really needing to own a car.

And again, they felt safe, because while young adults can be often fearless by nature, strolling the dark small-town roads of their new home felt completely non-threatening. Their home village of Uniclete is considered a damp community, which means that alcohol can be imported in limited quantities, but the sale of alcohol is actually prohibited.

In Nome, while local option laws do exist, it is legal to purchase and consume alcohol, though generally it's illegal, back in 2002 and also even today. But the main street hosts several saloon-style dive bars, as long as they have the proper licensing.

Only 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, winter in Nome reportedly reaches lows of -30 degrees Fahrenheit or -34 degrees Celsius, while summer temperatures are more mild and average at about 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit or around 12 degrees Celsius.

While the summer temps are still pretty chilly, this time of year, the sky glows with daylight for 18 hours. And nightfall isn't present until almost midnight. Areas like this are so fascinating to me. Like, I am so fascinated by the areas around the Arctic Circle and just the concept that it can be dark,

for most of the day or light for most of the day is so wild. Like, I want to go so bad. Yeah, it seems insane to think about the fact that in some of those places, it can be dark for nights

numerous weeks and it can also be daylight for numerous weeks. Yeah, it is wild. And like you said, during this case, the sun did stay out until almost midnight because it was in the summer. Exactly. And such was the case for one fateful summer night in 2003 when the small seaside town of Nome would be shaken to its core.

With the sun still hanging in the sky on Sunday, August 10th, 2003, Sonya and Timmery were getting ready for a night out. Now, the girls often shared clothes, and Sonya borrowed a pair of her roommate's Skechers sneakers and threw on a pair of jeans. It was around 11:00 PM that night, which was still pretty early in their eyes, so they bopped over to a friend's house nearby. While there, the group of friends played board games and Sonya drank a beer, although apparently just one beer.

At about 1:00 a.m., the sun had recently just set, and the sky was enveloped in a rainy mist. At around this time, the girls left the friend's house, but decided to part ways for the evening. Because Timmery had to be up early the next day for work, like literally in six hours, but Sonya had the following day off.

They had this little secret handshake where they would kind of pound their shoulder and throw two fingers in the air and say, "Peace out, pal." So, as they always did, the girls played out their farewell handshake on the foggy, damp streets, and they headed in opposite directions. Timmery was headed to another friend's house to stay the night, and Sonya went the opposite direction back towards their place.

As they split off, Timmery watched as her best friend skipped around in the rain before her silhouette faded into the night. So Timmery awoke at her friend's house at about 5 a.m. later in the morning before heading back home to get ready for work.

But when she arrived back at their shared apartment, she realized that Sonia hadn't come home. And her absence was sort of odd, but not necessarily alarming quite yet. So Timree just got dressed and headed to her shift at the Aurora Inn, where she worked as a front desk receptionist.

In a time before constant contact via cell phones was the norm, of course, back in 2003, Sonia would sometimes call Timree at work. But on this day, Timree went the rest of her shift without hearing from her friend at all. So later that day, Timree started getting a little nervous and called Sonia's sister, who hadn't heard from her either.

but they figured maybe she stayed out late at a friend's place and just hoped that she would return home shortly. However, when the next morning rolled around, Sonia still wasn't home and Timree was growing more and more concerned. She headed to work on Tuesday, but this time, instead of waiting for her best friend to reach out, she called several other friends to try and gain insight, but no one knew where Sonia was.

So with that, Timree decided the next phone call would be to the police. When she learned Sonia was not in their custody, her nerves grew into panic.

So after her Tuesday shift on August 12th, 2003, Timree headed to the Nome Police Department. At 5.15 p.m. Tuesday night when she arrived at the station, she was met with some unexpected behavior from the officers. Now, she was crying and obviously extremely anxious and depressed.

In the throes of these emotions, she explained that she hadn't seen her roommate since the early morning hours of Monday, which, you know, were technically, it's technically Sunday night. It was 1 a.m. on Monday, but it was technically Sunday night, and now it's Tuesday night. So this concerned her enough to come into the station. So at the very least, she hoped that the police would take her concerns seriously, especially since it had now been two full days. But...

Police questioned if Sonia was maybe just out partying, clearly not taking the concerns seriously. So Timmery was forced to leave without help. And by the next morning, which was Wednesday, the gravity of the situation was really weighing heavy on her when there was still no sign of Sonia.

Now, Sonia was scheduled at work at the hospital. She worked at the admitting desk on Tuesday afternoon, but she didn't show. So on Wednesday morning, her employer contacted police to report her absence as well. And after this call, an official search for Sonia commenced. The known police department involved the local fire squad in the pursuit, launching search and rescue boats into surrounding waters.

Using the ample daylight in their favor, many locals embarked on the search for Sonja, including friends and volunteers. At about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 13th, a volunteer firefighter named John Larson was driving around the wet back roads of Nome along Dredge Road 5. It was day one of the search when the volunteer decided to follow some fresh mud-caked tire marks just outside of town.

Driving slow on the murky trails, he noticed a nude body in the brush about five feet from the side of the road. Without approaching further, the volunteer jetted to the police station where he met with an officer before heading back to the scene together. They neared with caution and realized that the lifeless body amongst a patch of willowy weeds was indeed 19-year-old Sonia.

Void of any clothing with the exception of one sock on her left foot. Now with this, the investigation into the death of Sonya Ivanov began. And the small known police department had to act quick.

The elements were a major concern because the rugged terrain was home to wild animals, and the weather, of course, was super unpredictable here. So, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation was called to the scene, but unfortunately, they had to make the trek from Anchorage, so they wouldn't arrive until the following day. Now, in the meantime, Officer Taylor and Officer Owens from the Nome Police Department monitored the crime scene, and another officer headed to break the devastating news to Sonja's family.

When the Alaska Bureau of Investigation team arrived the next morning, they preserved the area as fast as possible. I mean, they laid down large plastic tarps all over the trails to just kind of protect any evidence. Also in tow, a criminalist named Carrie Cathcart from Anchorage arrived at the scene of the crime, and Carrie made some very curious revelations here.

All the classic signs of a crime scene were there. Traces of blood, tire tracks, and most interesting, a tiny blue paint transfer on a branch nearby. And it was believed that this small marking on the branch was paint scraped off of a moving vehicle when dumping the body. Based on the height of the paint mark on the branch, they basically assumed that the vehicle was likely a truck or possibly a large SUV. And keep that in mind.

So, investigators examined the tire tracks leading up to Sonya's body, but oddly, the tracks insinuated that the vehicle had three matching tires and one mismatched tire.

With these potential clues, investigators were determined to find answers, and they needed to do that fast, knowing that somebody in their small community was responsible for murder. As for Sonia's body, as Heath mentioned, she was found nude, which of course insinuated that she was possibly a victim of sexual assault. But evidence of such came back negative, like the rape kit came back negative.

Sonia's face and body were heavily bruised and there was a single .22 caliber bullet wound in the back of her head. It was clear that she had been shot execution style from a close range, but whether she saw it coming or not was still unclear. Shell casings from a gun were absent at the scene as well as the gun itself, making investigators aware that her killer had cleaned up some of the evidence.

And it was obvious that she was killed there because, you know, of all the blood at the scene. But they're ingesting this information to realize that whoever killed her was aware that leaving behind the shell casing would help trace it back to their gun. So aside from that, there was also absolutely no

no physical evidence on her body pointing to a particular person. No skin scrapings under her fingernails, no unidentified hairs, no fingerprints, no fibers, nothing. And even her clothes were missing, which obviously her clothes likely would have had DNA on them from her killer. Exactly. So this all proved even further that whoever killed her had evidence awareness and knew how to leave their DNA out of a crime scene.

Remember that as well. So shortly after her sudden murder, the memorial for 19-year-old Sonia Ivanov was held in the gymnasium at Frank A. Degnan High School, located in her hometown of Uniclete, which was the very high school that Sonia attended in the very gym that she had triumphed on the basketball courts. The service was attended by family, friends, and numerous members from many neighboring communities.

Now, due to the bruising on Sonia's face, having an open casket felt kind of inappropriate, but Sonia's sister, Christine, knew how much her sister loved her.

loved getting dolled up and looking her best. So in a final act of love, Christine took it upon herself to do Sonia's makeup for the very last time. That is such a heartbreaking thought that Christine had to go through that. And she was obviously doing it for her sister, but I can't even imagine having to do something like that. I know, I can't even imagine it, but it really goes back to, like I had mentioned, when they shared a room and they would...

Well, with the lack of physical or DNA evidence, police started from within and investigated Sonia's inner circle.

Now, one of the first people who was looked at was Sonja's friend, who went by the nickname Kunik. The two were reportedly friends, but some thought that maybe he had some unrequited love for Sonja. Like, maybe he had some romantic feelings and that was not really reciprocated by her. Yeah, he was not her type, but they were friends. So, when investigators reached out to him, Kunik agreed to be interviewed and claimed that he hadn't spoken to Sonja in about two weeks.

He said that he had traveled about 73 miles or 117 kilometers to Salmon Lake to go hunting with some buddies on that Sunday night. Again, the night that Sonja is believed to have been killed. And of course, as we know, Sonja was with Timmery and some other friends until about 1 a.m. Monday morning. So hours after Kunik would have arrived to Salmon Lake.

So it felt very unlikely that he would have driven all that way, come back in the early morning hours, killed Sonja, and then returned. And Kunik's friends were also questioned by authorities and confirmed that they were out hunting at Salmon Lake when Sonja went missing, and that they were nowhere near her. Now, since the friends on the hunting trip weren't all sleeping in the same room, they couldn't confirm that they had eyes on Kunik all night, so without an ironclad alibi, officials obtained a search warrant at his home,

and also for his car. Obviously, just to be sure. So, what did they find? Well, in his home, they discovered a pair of white and red Adidas sneakers, and on the bottom of these shoes, they discovered a fresh splotch of blood. This, of course, rung major alarm bells, but that wasn't all.

As they continued the search of Kunick's property, they entered the garage, and to their surprise, guess what they found? A blue Dodge pickup truck was parked inside. A blue truck that was a similar shade to the blue paint that was found on that branch back at the crime scene. And while looking around the truck, police couldn't help but notice something very odd regarding the tires.

the truck had three matching tires and one mismatched tire. Which, of course, lined up with the theory that the vehicle at the crime scene had dissimilar tires.

So, we have a pair of bloody sneakers, we've got a blue vehicle seemingly similar to the paint that was found at the crime scene, and then of course, some mismatched tires. But things are about to get even more incriminating for Kunick and police's eyes. As the vehicle investigation continued, authorities found blood on the tires along with a bloody tarp in the bed of the truck.

Inside the truck, police discovered hunting rifles, one of which had blood on it, which is, you know, normal for a hunter, and he obviously did say that he was hunting that past weekend. But still, some really, really suspicious alignings here. Yeah, it looks basically like everything is pointing to Kunik at this point. Yeah, exactly, but...

He had an explanation for all this. He said that during the hunting trip, he had shot a porcupine and then while driving, accidentally ran over a rabbit with his truck. So realizing the rabbit was still alive, he got out and stepped on the rabbit with his shoe to make sure that it was dead.

So while that is certainly morbid, I mean, at least I guess he put it out of its misery, this could explain the presence of blood. So DNA testing was performed on the blood pertaining to Kunick's vehicle and shoes. And right when authorities thought they had a strong lead, the testing proved that all the blood positively had belonged to an animal.

So with this DNA testing, Kunik was cleared as a suspect. And I mean, honestly, this must have been a terrifying time for him, you know, as this was going on because it was not looking good for a second there. Like those are some seriously uncanny parallels. It's crazy to me that all of these things seemed so...

Like you said, aligned, and then they just weren't. Like, what are the odds? The tires, the blue, the fact that it was a truck and they thought that it was either a truck or an SUV because of the height of the blue paint on the branch. The blood. And, of course, Kunick knew Sonya. They had a connection. He...

apparently had feelings for her at some point. Like, it's just, it's wild. He must have been absolutely freaking out, especially knowing that he didn't do it. Well, as for his truck, despite the bizarre coincidence of those mismatched tires, the tires on Kunick's car did not actually match the tires at the scene. And the blue paint on the branch was not consistent with the exact shade of paint on his vehicle.

So once Kunick was cleared, a crime lab official was on the lookout for a blue vehicle with mismatched tires, hoping to conjure up another lead. And by a stroke of luck, he found it. A man named Benjamin Niles, who had no connection to Sonia, owned a vehicle that matched the traces at the crime scene. You know, the tires and the color blue.

So on August 12th, after Sonia disappeared, Benjamin had been out driving on the outskirts of Nome with his girlfriend when she asked him to pull over by Dredge Road 5 so she could pee. Unaware that Sonia's body was in the brush nearby, they left the roadside area and continued on their drive.

Now, a receipt along with the girlfriend's confirmation of his story proved that he had nothing to do with Sonia's murder, and it was purely happenstance that he had pulled over in that area for his girlfriend.

Even though the crime lab determined that Sonia had been killed and placed on Dredge Road 5 somewhere between 12 a.m. and 5 p.m. on August 11th, so almost 20 hours before Benjamin and his girlfriend pulled over in the area. But with this couple in the clear, authorities dissected Sonia's final night alive to reveal what no one saw coming. ♪

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Shortly before Sonya's murder, as we mentioned, she and her best friend and roommate, Timmery, parted ways at around 1 a.m. on August 11th. Sonya was walking solo and passed by a gas station called Tessero, where a janitor was cleaning and noticed her walking by at around 1.15 a.m. Now, near this gas station, there was a residential home where two women named Florence and Danita were sitting on the front porch having a smoke.

Both women saw Sonja and Danita actually recognized her because they both played basketball and she remembered seeing Sonja previously playing basketball in a game. The women said hello to Sonja who seemed sober as she casually walked along the sidewalk. Now, as Sonja walked past the home, Florence watched as a car trailed right behind her, going slower and slower. And eventually, the vehicle stopped and rolled down the passenger window.

The women weren't able to see who was in the driver's seat of this car, but they noticed Sonya talking to the driver through the open window before getting into this vehicle. And the women were absolutely shocked by this, because Sonya had just entered a known police department SUV. As the police car peeled away with Sonya in tow, the women noted the time as 1.26 a.m.,

And when these women learned that Sonia went missing, obviously remembering that this happened, they actually reported this to the police station like right away. But somehow this tip had gotten lost and they didn't investigate it for weeks. Well, we're going to get into why that probably did happen. Now, the known police department owned three white Ford Expeditions. Two of the Ford Expeditions were older models and one of them was a newer model.

And on the night of August 10th through the early morning hours of August 11th, there were just two officers on duty that night. This means that two of the three cars were being used, one older and one newer. And only two officers could have picked Sonia up. Which proves how crucial this tip was because, you know, at first they're looking at the entire town of Nome and beyond and now they're like, wait,

There's two people. It's been narrowed down to two people. Absolutely crazy. Well, the two officers patrolling Nome that night were Stan Pasquoia and Matthew Owens. 28-year-old Officer Owens had moved to Alaska from Florida while Officer Pasquoia grew up in Nome. So that night, Officer Pasquoia was driving the newer car, which was vehicle 983, and Officer Owens was driving one of the older cars, vehicle 322.

Both officers were responding to a domestic violence call from approximately 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. on August 11th. And after leaving the scene, they temporarily parted ways. And what time did Sonia go missing? At 1 a.m. Exactly. So Pascoya claimed to have gone back to the station to make the domestic violence report, whereas Owens said that he was on bar closing patrol at 2 a.m.,

Then, just before 3:00 a.m., the officers reconnected and Owens dropped Pescoia off at home.

Meaning that between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., the time frame that Sonia was picked up, Pasquoya would have been at the station, but Owens was out in Nome unaccounted for. And remember, just a few minutes ago, we mentioned that Officer Owens arrived to the crime scene shortly after Sonia was found, but he was off duty that day and he brought his four-year-old son with him to the scene, so...

So, like, why was he there? How did he know to be there if he wasn't even on duty? And why did he bring his son? Like, he's just... And, by the way, the officer who didn't take Timree's reporting seriously that day when she went in on Tuesday, that was also Owens. Yeah, exactly. So he basically...

tried to downplay Sonya going missing. Then he shows up to the crime scene with his son. Weird as fuck. What are you doing on your day off? And it's like, for some reason, I feel like he did this because he wanted to appear like he was there to help.

But we're going to get into that. Yeah, I mean, he's making some really bad moves here. So also, as we mentioned, Matthew Owens and Stan Pescoia were the only officers on duty that night, as Heath just told us. And the eyewitness reported Sonia getting into a cop

car. But to the police, at least it was considered unlikely that one of them was involved. Obviously, why are police going to believe that one of their own is responsible for this, but still to do their due diligence. Luckily, the two officers were set to be secretly questioned in Anchorage on September 23rd, 2003. So about six weeks after Sonia's murder. However,

Hours before the Anchorage interviews were supposed to take place, a shocking discovery was made at the Nome Police Station. It was 1246 a.m. on September 23rd when Officer Matthew Owens and another official from the Nome Police Department noted that one of the older Florida expeditions was missing from the station.

Now, it's important to note that the police cars were usually kept locked with an electronic keypad, but the key was typically kept in the ignition for easy access. So with the vehicle missing and assumedly stolen, the two officers began searching for vehicle 321.

And listen up, people, because this is about to get insane. Yeah, because after two hours, Officer who? Officer Owens. Officer Dickhead. He radios the other officer to explain that he found vehicle 321 in an old gravel pit just outside of town at about 2.50 a.m. Just across from where Sonia's body was found weeks earlier.

And mere minutes later, Owen said that shots were fired by an unknown source and backup officers promptly arrived to the scene.

Armed and ready in the gravel pit, the officers were met with no retaliation, and it seemed like the alleged shooter had fled. Oh, did he? Yep, he's just gone. So once the coast was clear, vehicle 321 was towed from the gravel pit and returned to the station to investigate what occurred.

Now, a window on vehicle 321 had been smashed, but shockingly, there were no fingerprints in or on the entire car.

And when an Alaska state trooper was searching the car for clues, they noticed an envelope on the seat inside. After unsealing it, the state trooper discovered Sonia Ivanoff's ID card. And also inside was a typed letter. And here's what that letter said.

I hate cops. I hate every one of you. Sonia was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do not know her. As you can see, it was easy for me to take your pig car keys right there. It was not her fault. She thought I was a pig and shit just happened. She was just a person and I wanted to see if I could that night. Every one of you should be more careful. I watch every move you make.

Okay, so first of all, first of all, this letter is probably the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard. It's dumb. And then just the fact that you're really just doing the overkill thing by saying, pigs, pigs, oh, the police, bacon, oh, the police are pigs, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. It's just like...

Why? Calm down. So basically, the scene that's being painted by this letter is that someone who must hate cops using the term pigs, huh? Remember that? Stole the police's SUV and used it to pick up Sonia, who they're claiming is a random person that they did not know. And then before abandoning the car, they left a letter behind. Why? To tell them this, you know, again, for some reason, right?

and also tell them that they're being watched and essentially not to investigate her murder. So it's like, why would they do that? Why would they say, oh yeah, I hate cops. I'm not one, by the way. I stole a car. It was so easy. Ha ha ha. Why would you want to give any idea of what your identity is? Also, this just makes no sense because if you're going to pick up Sonya

Why would you steal a cop car? There's any car you could steal. You could steal any car on the street. You could use your own car. Why a cop car? Especially when there's three cop cars and this is such a small station in such a small area. It doesn't make any sense, which is why it's so funny. And again, there's no reason why you would want to point away from the cops being responsible.

Unless you're one of those people, you know, one of those police officers. And then, of course, who found the car? Matthew Owens, who apparently gets into a gunfight with the perp who was gone by the time that anybody else arrived. Like, right. It's like, look at me. I'm a hero. I got into this gunfight and I also found cop car 321 in a gravel pit. It's just silly. So dumb.

Well, yeah, even investigators were pretty skeptical of this letter, with at least one believing that the letter was possibly planted, since the defamatory referral of pigs seemed like it was trying to kind of downplay the importance of cops, and maybe on purpose. So then, investigators became convinced that a cop had written that letter in an attempt to throw them off, and were now even more convinced that a cop was responsible for the killing of Sonja.

And it seemed very bizarre that the same day the stolen car and mysterious letter were discovered is also the day that Officer Owens and Officer Pascoya were due in Anchorage for an official questioning regarding Sonya's disappearance and death. And by the way, uh, to get to Anchorage here, it's about an hour and a half flight, and you can't drive because Nome isn't a part of the state's road system, so you have to fly or you have to go by water.

But nonetheless, that day, Officer Stan Pasquoia went to Anchorage and fully cooperated, while Officer Matthew Owens did not show up for the questioning, claiming that he was shaken up from the alleged shootout at the gravel pit earlier that morning. The whole scenario was wildly suspicious though, and about a week later, on October 1st, 2003, state troopers took over the investigation at the request of the Nome Police Department.

The letter, envelope, and Sonya's ID were all tested for evidence, but of course they lacked fingerprints and DNA, much like the vehicle itself and the crime scene where Sonya's body was found. However, analysis of the letter showed that it could have come from a printer that Officer Owens had access to.

Subsequently, Matthew Owens was fired from the police department on suspicion. And on October 25th, 2003, Matthew Clay Owens was arrested for Sonia's murder. In January of 2005, then 29-year-old Matthew Owens went to trial for the murder of Sonia Ivanov. And the trial ahead would prove to provide damning evidence against him.

The state granted evidence proving that the night Sonia was murdered, Matthew Owens had driven to Coffee Creek, which is about 75 miles from Nome. Why is he doing this? Because while in Coffee Creek, he was also

he disposed of items into a fire pit. So he drove 75 miles away to dispose of evidence. But luckily, between the time of his arrest and the trial, officials searched the fire pit where they discovered grommets from a pair of jeans, eyelets from a pair of Skechers shoes, metal parts from a bra, four keys on a ring, and zippers.

And as you probably remember, Sonia was confirmed to be wearing jeans and Skechers when she went missing. So they very much believe that these burned fragments were parts of Sonia's clothes because remember, she was found nude except for one sock on her left foot. Also, one of the keys found in the fire pit was replicated and tested on Sonia's home lock.

And while it did fit in the keyhole, it didn't actually open the door. And this was likely due to the damage from the fire. But the fact that it fit in the lock was a pretty big deal. But get this. One of the other keys found was proven to belong to Matthew's uncle. Witness statements rang through the courtroom and Matthew's estranged wife, Chin Johnson, took the stand.

She testified that at approximately 4.30 p.m. on August 12th, so the day Sonia's body was found. Her husband called her saying that he needed to go to work because there was a missing girl.

and he asked Chin to not repeat this conversation. Now, if this phone call happened at 4.30 p.m., like Chin said, that means Matthew Owens was aware of Sonia's death 45 minutes before Timmery even reported Sonia missing at the station. And remember, the search wasn't even taken seriously, nor did it actually begin until the day after this.

As we mentioned, evidence was brought forward stating that the bullet that killed Sonia came from a .22 caliber gun. While no shell casings were found, the bullet proved to have unique grooves, indicating that the gun used had rare rifling.

And interestingly, there was a Jennings .22 pistol at the Nome police station that had a similar pattern, which Officer Matthew Owens had full access to. As for the stolen vehicle 321 with the printed letter, the state affirmed that Matthew staged the vehicle theft and implanted the note along with Sonia's ID card to divert the investigation.

One witness also testified that prior to the stolen vehicle incident, Matthew's landlord was at his home.

That is so crazy. So obviously this guy was like, why do you have that? And Matthew explained it away by claiming that it was evidence that he was planning to bring forward to the investigation. But it seemingly wasn't seen again until it was discovered inside the envelope of the stolen police car.

Yeah, the one he apparently didn't write in the car he didn't steal, but that he instead found before getting into a gunfight. Yeah, sure, buddy. While the trial was unable to bring forward DNA evidence, remember her killer was evidence-aware, the defense argued that since Matthew worked in law enforcement, of course, he had knowledge of how to cover up a crime. During the trial, Matthew Owens remained quiet and stared at the charging documents during most of this proceeding with his head down.

But when he took the stand, he testified that he did not kill Sonya. While the conviction was seemingly imminent, the Nome jury deliberated for five days, but they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict based on the lack of DNA evidence. Now, as a result, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial, and a second trial was granted.

While the first trial took place in Nome, the judge moved the second trial to Kotzebue, Alaska, which is a town over a hundred miles away. On October 17th, 2005, the second trial against Matthew Owens commenced. The state once again presented their case to the jury, and the trial went on for about six weeks.

And this time, after three days of deliberation, a Kotzebue jury made their decision. But it was different from Noam's verdict. Matthew Clay Owens was convicted of murder in the first degree for killing Sonya Ivanov and tampering with physical evidence. Now, naturally, Matthew attempted to appeal his conviction, stating that there was just simply not enough evidence, but was denied the request for an appeal.

Then, in late 2005, Matthew Clay Owens was sentenced to 101 years in prison. And

And it seems like the reason that Matthew murdered Sonia may have been sexually motivated, despite there being no evidence of sexual assault. It could have been, you know, retaliation in that way, because just so everybody knows, after he was arrested, multiple women came forward to report that Matthew Owens had sexually assaulted them while he was on duty.

So he was allegedly using his badge to sexually assault women, basically using his power in his badge. Yeah, and many of these women said that he threatened to kill them if they ever told anybody about it. And even if they would have said something to the police, not only would they have been risking their potential safety, but also...

it's less likely that they would have been believed. And it's honestly, to me, it's almost shocking in some ways that Matthew was pursued by investigators in the way that he was.

Because in some cases that we've covered that has an officer, you know, as the perpetrator, their colleagues don't take it seriously because police officers are supposed to serve and protect, you know, not harm the community. Which is why Sonia's mom later said, quote, I never thought I would lose a daughter to a policeman. They're supposed to protect.

It kind of messed up my trusting of police officers. Yeah, and also on top of this, you know, a lot of times people like to just stick up for their own. Like, police officers aren't going to say anything. That's what I mean. If one of their own is doing something illegal or wrong.

So if that was happening in that department, I am very, very glad that they took this investigation a lot further. Yeah, me too. It's great that they did pursue him instead of saying, oh, one of our guys wouldn't do that. Let's look at Kunik again. Right. He's a police officer. He would never do that. He's there to serve and protect. But unfortunately, we do see this happening.

Yeah. But here they did, they did persevere. They did look into him and they did their due diligence. And we're so, so grateful for that at the very least. But yeah,

Unfortunately, as we know, crimes committed against indigenous women are not a rarity, as we often mention when we cover such cases, because in fact, it's estimated that Native American and Alaskan native rates of murder, rape and violent crime on reservations are up to 10 times higher than national averages.

According to the National Crime Information Center in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American and Alaskan Native women and girls. And this is based on information from the U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Missing Persons Database. And

And while these numbers are staggeringly high, a lack of recognition and institutional documentation of violence on Indigenous women and girls remain a major issue. And because of this, reports suggest that there is no true count of how many Native women go missing or are killed each year.

And stories like Sonia's remind us that there is still so much justice needed for indigenous women who have been victims of similar circumstances. Moving forward, we must demand justice for more reliable national statistics, along with fair and full media coverage on missing and murdered indigenous persons.

Years after Sonia's murder, her legacy proved to make a nationwide impact when in 2007, the Sonia Ivanoff bill was signed into law. And her law mandates a maximum sentence for first-degree murder to any officer who murders someone while on duty. ♪♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. As I mentioned in the beginning, if you want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered, go over on our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we're also on Facebook at Going West Podcast.

Yes, check it out. And if any of you have indigenous cases that you know about, unfortunately, we see this happen a lot where we want to cover an indigenous case, but there is not nearly enough information about it because the news is not doing their job of reporting about them. And also the police is not releasing information.

So it's really sad when that happens, but we do love spreading Indigenous stories because we very much do recognize how important they are to tell. So please send over any cases you have and any cases in general. We accept everything on goingwestpodcasts at gmail.com.

We have a massive list, but appreciate everybody who sends over a recommendation and we try to get back to everybody. So thank you so much in advance. Absolutely. I will try to get through all of your guys' emails as quick as possible. But like Daphne said, there is a massive list. So don't be alarmed if you haven't heard your recommendation yet. I promise it will be coming. Well, with that, we will see you guys on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

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