For nearly thirty years, the brutal murder of twenty year old Sophie Surgery haunted Alaska. Sophie was found dead in a college dorm bathroom in nineteen ninety three, a victim
of horrific violence. Her story was a cold case that seemed destined to remain unsolved until decades later, though, when, through relentless determination of investigators and groundbreaking DNA technology, her killer was finally brought to justice, unraveling a mystery that haunted her family and the community for generations.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast.
The following podcast material intended more mature audience. It's another day and we have another story for you, brought to you by Patreon. It's actually kind of brought to you by Patreon because one of our patron members, Alena Hyatt, recommended this case over on Patreon. So there you go, technically brought to you by Patreon aka Patrons aka Alena Hyatt. So there we go.
There go.
Quick little shout out to today for helping us out with that one. That's a nice thing of being on Patreon. As you get the behind the scenes. You can you don't have some say sometimes, you know, give us some little nudges in the right direction. And that's exactly what happened there.
So yeah, yeah, that's awesome. It's a great way to to you know, help us with our research. And you're like, do this case, do that case, do this case?
Yeah, dance monkey dance, Oh my god. But yeah. So shout out to Elena. Also shout out to those who signed up on our Patreon this week. We have haven My, Tracy Hawthorn, Kimbo, and Megan Marker right on. Thank you very much for signing up. We appreciate it.
Dang good list.
Yeah, we're an ani podcast, so your support means the world. Thank you so much.
Sure do. We just did a pre show over on Patreon and you know I no longer have a drink now you don't finished my drink over there?
Well, do you want to get a drink all made up for the show?
No, it's okay. It was just hot chocolate. It was delicious.
You want another hot chocolate?
Just again? What the hell is wrong with me?
Because there's nothing wrong with the word just.
It was a delicious, glorious hot chocolate. It was just a delicious glory iled it.
It was so good. On the pre show though, over on Patreon, you did mention something that I just wanted to kind of like throw out there. Blue Monday is coming up.
It is, yeah, third Monday of every January.
Yeah, and I thought you had a pretty good idea on how to combat blue Monday. So do you want to go ahead and divulge?
Well again, okay, this works for me. I find when I don't have something to necessarily like look forward to, like an event or a trip or even just like some sort of self care thing like I don't do as well. I just like to have something to look forward to. So we have an event that we're going to on the following Saturday, I believe it's Saturday. And so basically just like do a little something that you book,
like a massage, like a date with a friend. You said, maybe plan to make like a favorite meal, just like have something on your calendar or something that you can look forward to.
Yeah, and if you're really wanting to make sure that you are really happy, sit back and watch Lord of the Rings. Oh man, you know that gets the dope? Mean going didn't we are?
You also said pet a dog, I said, buy a dog, Get a dog.
Those are always you can combat the blues, and especially with Blue Monday coming up.
Yeah, I don't know, it's just nice to have just a little something in your calendar that you can be excited about that's coming up. So I think at any time of the year, that's kind of nice.
I agree, I feel you, and that's really good idea. So yeah, I just wanted to make sure that we injected that in there a little bit before we got in today's episode, of course. Yeah, so you ready for this one?
I think so?
You think?
So I got zero clue what's going on here?
So what do you mean zero? I told you in the intro going on?
Well, I know, but that's just like such a little piece of it. I do like Alaska cases because Alaska like fascinates me a little bit. I would love to explore it over there more like it's not that far from us. Well it's a little far, but not that bad. I don't know. It's just like a territory that I like listening about and hearing about because it's so it's just so it seems so remote and I don't know, I just want we need to explore Alaska more. Okay, it's not sponsored by Alaska. It's not And I do
want to clarify Alaska is not a territory. Alaska is a state. Oh yeah, I know. I didn't say, Oh, I didn't mean territory like as.
In the Northwest toward territory.
Did I say territory. You called it a territory, Okay, but I didn't mean, like I knew, it's not a No, it's not part of part of the US. I know that.
Yeah, okay. The Yukon is a Canadian Yeah, yeah, okay, just clarifying because you called it a territory.
I know, but I just me I meant as in, like the climate the territory understandable thing, right.
Yeah, I get I give get you, I got you.
Just making sure I don't look real dumb.
May basically because it might be someone who's like, actually.
No, I'm very aware it's part of the United States, Okay, but it's like it's so close to us. It's interesting how it's like, I don't know, divided like that, and I know there's so much to it, but it's just a place that I want to explore more one day.
Fair enough, well, let's talk about this. We're not going to talk too much about the Alaskan territory, I know, but we will touch on a little bit because yeah, there is a little bit of geographical stuff that we're going over, not much, but a little bit. So it starts off with, you know, our main story, our individual who this is all about. It starts off with Sophie.
So Sophie Surgery was born in June of nineteen seventy two, and she was born at Piccas Point, Alaska, which is a tiny village with a population of just around seventy people at the time of her birth.
Oh wow.
Yeah. Now, like many people in her community, Sophie was a member of the you pick, an indigenous Alaskan group with deep cultural roots in the region. From a young age, Sophie stood out as a bright and hard working individual. People in her community admired her for her determination and her quirky sense of humor. She had a knack for making other people laugh off in cracking jokes that she
couldn't help but laugh at herself. She's one of those kind of individuals that knows she's funny and is not a afraid to laugh when she makes a good one.
So that's amazing.
Love that about her. Now just four foot nine inches tall, she was quite a petite woman, but what she lacked in height, she more than made up for with her vibrant personality and strong spirit. Sophie lived with her mother, Elena, and her younger brother, helping her mom manage the household while dreaming of a big future. One of her earliest aspirations was to join the US Navy, but unfortunately, her height disqualified her from ever being able to. Undeterred, Sophie
found another dream to pursue. She wanted to work with marine life, specifically whales, animals that she deeply admired. Determined to follow this new path, Sophie focused on her education, and her dedication would pay off when she finally earned a full scholarship to the University of Alaska in af Fairbanks or UAF. This was a monumental achievement not only
for her, but her family as well. No kidding, yeah, she was an honor student, and she also was the first of her family to attend college post secondary now UAF. It was a long way away from their home village. It was about two hundred and sixty miles to the north and about five and a half hour's flight away. Moving from the tight knit community of seventy people to a university with thousands of students was a huge adjustment
for Sophie Fairbanks. Though not a massive city, was far more urban than anything she had ever experienced growing up. I mean, if you are used to a community of seventy people, and I mean the university itself has more population, way more. Yeah, I imagine you're going to a class with a higher population than your entire village, right, no kidding, So that's that's significant.
I feel like moving in itself is, you know, kind of tough. But then when it's drastically that different, yeah, would make it even worse or even harder.
Rights, It's a cultural shock, is what that is, honestly.
Now.
In nineteen ninety three, UAF had a student population of around six thousand, with about one hundred, three hundred and fifty students. There we go living on the campus, the sheer size of the campus, the bustling environment. It was just a lot, but Sophie managed to adapt. She made new friends, including an individual named Shirley, a fellow Alaskan Native student. The two connected quickly likely because they shared similar cultural backgrounds and understood the pressures of being far
from home. Shirley later reflected on their college experience together, explaining how much was at stake for both of them. Quote, we were so afraid of failing. We had to make sure that we got through school because otherwise our future was back home. Home wasn't a bad place, but we had dreams. We wanted to do more.
Wow, hey, that's a statement right now.
Despite these challenges that they faced on campus, Sophie thrived. She wasn't into partying or typical college distractions. I mean, of course she'd attend one or two like throughout the year, but she wasn't really the typical type to go partying or anything. She kept her head down and focused on her studies. After two years of studying marine biology, Sophie
decided to take a break. It was in nineteen ninety two she moved back to her village to save money and prepare for a series of medical procedures, including a jaw surgery and her and orthodonic work. She took a job at a local school, which provided her with health insurance, which she needed to cover the medical expenses, and even though she was back home, Sophie still had to travel
to Fairbanks for her surgery. I mean, you're not going to have a doctor in a village of seventy people, right right, Yeah, yeah, So she had to go back for those surgeries, follow up appointments, all that. So she was traveling back and forth quite a bit. To save money on lodging. During these trips, she stayed with her friend Shirley, who graciously offered her door room on the campus.
Shirley would lend Sophie her keys and spend the night with her boyfriend in another dorm, ensuring that her boyfriend or sorry, ensuring that her friend had a comfortable place to stay while she was focusing on her recovery, which great friend.
Yeah, that's super nice.
Also, good excuse to spend the night.
With your well yeah, there was a benefit there for her for sure, definitely.
Yeah. So in April of nineteen ninety three, Sophie surgery needed to return to Fairbanks for one of these appointments, as she had done before, She arranged to stay at the University of Alaskan Fairbanks again UAF with her friend Shirley. On Friday, April twenty third, Sophie began her journey. She flew from her home village of Pikes Point to Bethel and then to Anchorage, where she stayed overnight with a family friend. Then the next day, on Saturday, April twenty fourth,
she took her final flight to Fairbanks. Her plan was to spend the weekend staying with Shirley in the dorm room at Barlot Hall. Now, Barlett Hall is a big focus of this case. By the sounds of it. There's a few different sections of dorms, but this building, Barlet Hall of Dorms is where it really takes place. From there, she would attend her appointment on Monday and then fly
back home afterwards. Surely, always accommodating lent, Sophie her dorm room key went over to spend the night with her boyfriend. You know, it was a simple plan that they have done several times at this point. Now, Shirley's dorm room was number two to seven two hundred and twenty seven and it was located on the second floor of Barlot Hall.
It was a dormitory designated for women only. On paper, it should have been safe, should have been a perfect environment, a place where young women could women could live and study and rest without worry. But in reality, the safety of UAF campus, particularly in Barlot Hall, had been having some growing concerns for years.
Oh shit, really yeah.
See, for a long time, students had been raising alarm about the lack of security measures on campus. Several complaints had been made about men being found wandering in the women's dorms without any sort of authorization.
Holy shit.
These weren't just isolated incidents easier either. They pointed out a troubling pattern. Just two months before Sophie's visit, a female student living in Barlot Hall had accused two UAF basketball players of sexually assaulting her while another teammate watched.
Oh my gosh, are you serious.
Yeah, so this is taking place not only on campus, but within the dorm room.
Oh yeah, that is not good at all.
Yeah, within the women's only dorm room.
And it's been happening for some time. So it's like, why have they not nipped this in the butt here?
Well, it's been happening for longer than you think, because so far we've only covered up two months prior to There's more so, despite these serious allegations and numerous complaints, campus security had not made any significant changes to address these concerns. But there were more than just these few incidents. Like I say, two months is not the only history here.
We got more than that, because there was also a man who had been arrested after he was discovered naked in the women's bathroom on the fourth floor of Barlot Hall.
Holy shit, that's disturbing.
Yeah. And again in nineteen ninety one, so two years prior, a UAF student had been attacked in another dorm room by a soldier from Fort Wainwright who attempted to sexually assault her. These incidents weren't already And if these incidents weren't already enough to make students uneasy, the problem, it stretched back even further. We're talking in nineteen seventy two, a horrific crime that shocked UAF's campus. On December tenth of that year, a student named Jody ray Stanback was
raped and murdered in her dorm room. Her killer was identified as Alan Walling Terrible with his last name Wallonga Alan Wallonga, I believe is how he pronounced it. He was a man with a history of sexual violence, and he had gained unauthorized access to her room. According to reports, he watched Jody's sleep before committing the brutal assault. D The trag you left the university reeling, and resident advisors
urging administration to improve dorm security. They suggested adding locks to bathroom doors to prevent unauthorized access, but no action was really ever taken. Lack of changes left many students vulnerable, and these lapses in security would tragically resurface decades later.
Gosh, you think you have an event like that, hey, Like, if anything's going to wake you up to change some shit, it's that exactly. But then this is just like it's just ongoing because I don't know, I feel like it can't be that hard to secure a dorm, you know it, maybe I'm out to lunch.
Well, because they do have security on campus. They do have individuals who are supposed to be checking like you know, visitors check in, right, yeah, but it's not being enforced like whatsoever. So I mean, maybe there's some procedures in place, but there's no one checking up to ensure that these procedures are being followed according to the according to the regulations or anything.
Huh.
And then of course, on top of that, you have things that should be implement like engineered controls like locks or something like that as well, which they're just lapsing on two. So it's a failure of the entire system, not only what's in place, but the failure of identifying what else should be in place.
Yeah, that's just terrifying that. I mean, that's their home, right, You think that you should be able to feel comfortable and safe in.
Your home, but unfortunately they weren't. Now, I guess that might also be the benefit of the rotating students, because those who maybe don't feel safe because hey, maybe there was someone attacked or someone who was found unauthorized wandering around naked, whatever the situation, some of the individuals who experienced that, Hey, in a couple of years, they're no longer here, And in a couple of years we have a whole new stack of students who are just fresh
and don't know. And you know, it's just giving it that environment to repeat itself without people having that growing concern.
Well, yeah, and like, what are you supposed to do? It sounds like people were, you know, addressing their concerns, but you can only do that so much.
Really exactly now, Sophie arrived in Fairbanks on Saturday, April twenty fourth. As I mentioned earlier, she spent much of that day running errands around the city before returning to the UAF campus to spend the night. That evening, Sophie enjoyed her time with friends, hanging out and catching up, and on Sunday she kept a low profile, spending most
of her time in and around Barlot Hall. Later that night, she went to see a movie with three friends, and after the film, they all decided to take a scenic drive around Murphy Dome recreational area. The group then dropped Sophie off at Barlot Hall just before midnight. Once back
at the dorms, Sophie met up with Shirley. At some point, Sophie decided to go out for a smoke, and since it was late at night in April in Alaska, it was still quite cold out in the middle of the night, right, so Sophie opted to use a woman's dorm bathroom instead, which was apparently a popular area for them to smoke.
Oh yucky though, Hey.
Well you see, the bathroom had separate tubroom with an exhaust fan. Oh okay, okay, so it made it a convenient spot because I mean, hey.
It's like it is like going kind of outside.
Exactly, So you basically lock yourself in this room and it just exhausts out. It's basically like an anti hot box, is what that was. I'm sure it still smell the cigarettes, but I digress. Now. At about one thirty am, Sureley and her boyfriend decided to turn in for the night. They were headed to her boyfriend's dorm, leaving the room two two seven at Barlett Hall empty because that was around the time when Sophie had gone out for that smoke.
She hadn't returned yet, so Shirley left a note letting her know that they had gone, and the next morning, on Monday, April twenty sixth, nineteen ninety three, Shirley returned to the dorm room at about eight fifty am and immediately noticed something was wrong. Sophie was nowhere to be found. She clearly didn't even return.
Oh geez, oh my gosh, just the sinking feeling you would get.
Yep, all her her baggage or clothing, her personal belongings, they were still exactly when they left. The note was still exactly where she left it. The bed hadn't been slept in. Concerned, Shirley checked the common areas of Barlot Hall but found no trace of her friend, and as the hours passed, her worry grew. Later that day, Shirley called Sophie's orthodontist to see if she had made it to her appointment, only to learn that Sophie had missed
the appointment entirely. By then, Shirley knew something was seriously wrong. At approximately two forty two that same day, a janitor was cleaning the women's bathroom on the second floor Barlet Hall and stumbled upon a horrific scene. Inside the small tub room adjacent to the shower stalls lay the lifeless
body of a young woman. So to paint a picture, I don't know the layout of this bathroom exactly, but by the sounds of it, as you have rows of showers, yeah, and I'm assuming sins maybe on the opposite sides, that sort of thing, right, And then there is another room within this public bathroom.
To take a bath, to take a bath.
And that's where she was located. So you would have had students coming to and from all day so far, showers no.
Idea that she's in there exactly.
Campus police were immediately notified, and they brought in Alaska State troopers immediately to begin the homicide investigation, or at least investigation, but it would turn out to be homicide. Officers quickly secured the scene and began canvassing in the area, interviewing students and staff in the hopes of finding someone who might have seen or heard something that could explain
what happened. Word of the discovery spread quickly around campus, and it wasn't before long that surely heard rumors that a body was found in the woman's bathroom on the second floor of Barlott Hall.
Oh No.
Panicked, Shirley and her boyfriend rushed back to her dorm, but were stopped by police at the entrance. When officers questioned them, Shirley told them about Sophie being missing and explained that Sophie had actually been previously supposed to be spending the night in her dorm. She led officers back to her room and then showed investigators Sophie's ID card. With this ID card, they were able to get a positive identity on a young woman found dead. It was Sophie. Surgery.
Hmmm, that is just that, okay, I don't know. I feel like this is just a scenario or a location that something like this shouldn't be happening, Like you shouldn't be having a well she's not a student at the time, but she was and like a young woman murdered in africing dorm room bathroom, Like are you kidding me? Here?
I agree? And now, the only way I think that this should have happened, just because Devil's advocate here, right, is the murderer should be another person staying in the dorm rooms.
Right, Yeah, I guess that could logically make a little bit more sense.
Yeah, someone with authorized access to the dorm. Yeah, but as we know in the history, it sounds like it's very likely it's probably not.
Yeah, it could be anyone that just kind of like walked in there.
Yeah. So the details of Sophie's murder were deeply disturbing. Her body was discovered laying on her back in the bathtub, her legs together and bent to her left. Her feet were in contact with the bottom of the tub, and she was still wearing her shoes and socks. However, her pants and underwear had been pulled down past her knees, and her sweater was pushed up around her neck and armpit.
Duh.
The right cup of her bra had been pulled up, exposing her right breast, and her left cheek rested against the bottom of the tub over the drain, and her arms were stretched above her head.
Holy shit, Yeah, she was.
Laying right below the water Spigott investigators noted multiple stab wounds on the right side of Sophie's face, and her face was covered in blood. Her hair and clothing were damp, which suggested that the water had been running excuse me in the tub after she had been placed there, And most chillingly, when Sophie's body was removed from the bathtub, the investigators discovered that she had been shot in the back of the head.
Holy shit. Yes, okay, I don't know why, but I didn't think that would be the like the cause of death.
Yep, she was shot in the back of the head. Now we've talked about I mean, honestly, like you're in a well populated dorm room. So one of the first questions is how did no one hear the show?
Yeah? Right, Yeah.
Something that we talked about many times on this podcast is the twenty two caliber bullet. It's infamous for being a mobster's gangster's choice of weapon back in the day because of many things, one of them being it's quiet. Yep, twenty two calibers. Though they do make a bang, they're still allowed there not going to make a bang of any handgun that you can think of. It's quite quiet in consideration.
Well, I mean too, if it's just one say you're this, you're hearing this, I don't know, You're probably not gonna right away think, oh my gosh, that was like a shot, Like you're gonna make excuses thinking that it was some sort of other noise.
Right, what was that? Yeah, someone drops something? Who knows? Yeah, So yeah, that is a piece of information that does later come out that it is a twenty two caliber bullet. I did kind of want to mention it here because I do think it's important because that red flag immediately comes up. Why didn't anyone hear it?
Well?
Possibly because of that beneath her body in the drain of the tub, they also discovered Sophie's cigarette lighter. Some of the stab wounds they were able to determine were post and some were pre death. Authorities quickly announced Sophie's identity to the public, confirming that her death was being investigated as a homicide. The murder sent shockwaves through the campus.
Little killings had just taken place less than twenty feet from where their students were sleeping, leaving the entire community in disbelief. Both students and parents began questioning the safety of the dormitories, and the atmosphere and campus grew increasingly tense. Within days, around sixty students packed up and moved at a barlet hall.
Well, yeah, how on earth can you feel safe after that?
Exactly? Despite the fact that there was still one week remaining of the semester, some sought housing and other dorms, while others chose to stay off campus altogether. But on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, Sophie's autopsy was performed in Anchorage, Alaska. The findings confirmed that she'd been killed by a single gunshot to the back of the head. The bullet, a critical piece of evidence, was recovered from
her skull and preserved. The autopsy was also revealed that Sophie had been stabbed multiple times, specifically in the right corner of her right eye while she was still alive.
What the shit.
Other stab wound found on her right cheek, which appeared to have been inflicted postpartum, post mortem post mortem.
Okay, but what the hell? That just seems so I don't know, stabbing the face seems like something you don't hear often.
Really, no, definitely don't. It's I mean, there's not. There is some soft tissue on top, but there's just nothing about bone underneath, right, So yeah, it's an interesting choice. These injuries were consistent with the use of a thin bladed knife, and my guess is most likely it was used to subdue the individual in the struggle. Oh okay, potentially in an attempt to like blind her maybe, m I see, that's my guess.
Yeah, I mean that does make sense now.
Additional abrasions were discovered on Sophie's abdomen and right hip, along with the bruise on her right knee. However, toxicology reports showed no sign of drug or alcohol in her system. I mated a grim picture of Sophie's final moments and of course a brutal attack.
Well I'm assuming too, she also like sexually assaulted, just like the way that she was found.
And the next line I have written as part of the autopsy, a rape kit was administered and DNA evidence was collected.
Yeah, like just brutal, like a brutal, brutal attack, brutal way to die.
Yeah, Now we aren't talking nineteen ninety three here, and Alaska at the time did not have the technology to process DNA and criminal investigations. So while this evidence collected, this DNA couldn't immediately help identify Sophie's killer, preserving it could potentially prove to be vital if they did so. And so it's good that they did that because it became a very key.
Piece in that good they're thinking ahead.
They were, So despite investigator's best efforts, the case was progressing extremely slowly. The semester was coming to an end. If you mentioned, I mentioned there was only a week left, and students were preparing to leave campus for the summer, and they already had sixty students move off, move off campus or different dormitories or whatever. So you already have potential witnesses gone, and in a week's time they're all
going to be gone. So it created a sense of urgency for investigators who are working tirelessly to gather as much information as possible before students actually left the campus campus for witnesses and clues, managing to cleet fingerprints, hairs, hair samples, and other bits of evidence from the crime scene. Now remember this is a public bathroom, so it's who's to say whose it is and if it's relevance, right, Yeah,
and none of this evidence immediately pointed to a suspect. Now, Sergeant Jim McCann, one of the lead investigators on the case, believe that Sophie's murderer was sorry murder was the result of extreme rage. He theorized that the killer likely harbored a deep anger towards women, and that Sophie had tragically become a target simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Okay, I sort of wondered this too, with the whole like face cutting, like it was almost you know, like destroying the way that she looked and stuff. In a sense, I was wondering something like that.
But which is very very likely because I mean there were some posts yeah mortem as well, so maybe it explains it in the struggle at the beginning, But after being shot in the back of the head, why would she be stabbed again in the face.
Yeah, like mutilating the way that she looked like in her appearance.
Yeah. Now, McCann was convicted. Sorry. Convinced that the killer was a man who was familiar with the UAF campus, someone who blended in well enough to move around unnoticed. He suggested that there was even a fifty percent chance that the perpetrator had already left Fairbanks and returned to his hometown for the summer, making it even harder to
track him down. He also wore in the public that the killer had showed a disturbingly level disturbing I'm getting words mixed up today, I'm sorry, disturbing level of premeditation by bringing a gun to the scene. He already had the gun on him, So he believed whoever was committing this crime, or committed it, had likely fantasized about such acts before ever actually have making this attack.
He'll like, you mean, like arriving knowing what he was kind of about to do if the opportunity was there.
Well, it's likely he's saying A that he fantasized about doing this and b premeditated doing it before going to do it. So it's like, I want to do this, I want to do this one day. I'm going to do this today, I'm fucking doing.
YEAP came prepared, opportunity was there.
He urged anyone who noticed a man acting strangely or suspiciously around the time of the murder to come forward with any sort of information, but despite law enforcement's best efforts, Sophie's case went cold. Even the offer of twenty thousand dollars reward for information failed to generate any significant leads. There were, of course, some leads and stuff, some people, you know, saying that they heard a noise, a few little things like that, but nothing really significant ever came.
Over time, mentions of her case faded from the local news, and the tragic loss of Sophie became a painful, unresolved chapter for her family and the university. In the years following her murder, UAF began making improvements to campus security, but for her family, those changes came too late. In nineteen ninety five, Sophie's family filed a four million dollar lawsuit against UAF, accusing the university of negligence for failing
to provide adequate security in the dormitories. Their attorney argued that Barlott Hall was widely known as a party house, where people could come and go freely without being checked or monitored. There were no systems in place to track who was entering or leaving the dorms, which created an environment where unauthorized individuals could wander undetected. The university's attorney countered that the blame for Sophie's desk death rested solely
with her killer, not the institution. In an attempt to shift responsibility, the defense even suggested that Sophie's own actions had contributed to her tragic death, an argument that of course, deeply angered.
Her Femily, Oh my, well, I mean he chose that location to commit this for a reason.
He did once one hundred percent.
Yeah that is yeah, I don't that's ridiculous.
Yes. Now, Unfortunately, the lawsuit had unintended consequences. As legal proceedings moved forward, sensitive information about the case was released to the public, details that should have been remained confidential. Details that hey, maybe the killer might only know, and if they got the questionings and stuff correctly, you know,
it might have been able to draw from someone. But it became public knowledge, and this disclosure muddied the investigation, complicating the efforts to solve this case.
Awesome.
Yeah. Now I don't know the actual result of that lawsuit, but what I do know is as the years passed, her case just remained unsolved and her family was left waiting for justice to finally be served. By the late nineteen nineties, advancement in DNA technology offered a glimmer of hope for Sophie's case. The biological evidence collected from Sophie's body in nineteen ninety three was re examined and an early DNA profile was created at the Alaska State Crime Lab.
While this was a step forward, the technology of the time still required law enforcement to compare the unknown DNA profile to individual suspects one by one, painstaking and time consuming process can basically, it's a needle in a hayesack search. Yes, you have a DNA profile, who you goeing to compare it to? Yeah, well, this guy's our suspect. Do we
have as DNA we do, Let's compare the two. That's all you can do, one person by one person, And none of the DNA comparisons canducted during this period yielded any matches, leaving investigators frustrated and at a complete dead end. Then, in May of two thousand, another breakthrough in forensic science brought a renewed hope to Sophie's case. The biological sample from Sophie's body was processed using a more advanced DNA analysis method and uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System
or also known as CODIS. Unlike the older approach, COTIS allowed investigators to compare an unknown DNA profile against a vast database of DNA profiles. So basically, whatever we have in our system, we can run it against those, right yep. But Sophie's DNA profile was run and the results were disheartening. No matches were found. Basically, this guy had no history clearly, so as DNA hadn't been put in the system. So he's someone who we just haven't had arrested and gotten DNA from before.
Here you have like such high hopes, right, there's still continuing with investigating, which is amazing, and then these events is you're like, oh, man, like maybe this will be our break and then just like complete letdown. You know.
True, though, there is a bright side to this because the killer's DNA was now in the profile, so if he was ever to do something else, and his DNA put in, Oh yeah, then.
Go yeah, so I mean, yeah, he better make sure he doesn't fuck up again at all or ruin someone's life again exactly.
So it's basically a waiting game at this point, and the years since her death basically turned into decades, and Sophie's case became one of Alaska's most well known cold cases, but still investigators followed leads over the years. So in two thousand and nine, in a renewed effort to generate leads, investigators released new details about Sophie's case. They published photos of the clothing she had been wearing the night of the murder, including her brightly colored sweater, and asked the
public for any information. They specifically wanted to hear from anyone who might have seen Sophie that night while she smoked and maybe chatted with other students outside of the dorms. Investigators hope this push might jog someone's memory, but the results were minimal and the case still was cold. Then in twenty ten, the next year, a name from the original investigation resurfaced, Nicholas Daser. Now Nicholas was a former
UAF student who had been living in Barlett Hall. At the time of Sophie's murder, he and his roommate, Stephen Downs, had both lived on the third floor in room three h five. Back in nineteen ninety three, both men were briefly interviewed as part of the initial investigation. At the time, they denied having any sort of knowledge of Sophie's murder or anything suspicious that might have happened that night. Now,
Nicholas wasn't just a student at UAF. In fact, in nineteen ninety three, he was also working as a campus security guard. He'd even been on duty the night of Sophie's murder and had helped police secure the crime scene the very next day. However, shortly after the murder, Nicholas lost his job as a security guard when it was discovered that he had violated campus rules by bringing a firearm to his dorm room.
What okay, and this wasn't picked up.
Correct?
Okay? Well, I mean different people have the knowledge. I guess it's thought not to give that to the police.
Auto basically it was never reported to police.
Oh okay.
So this firearm detail prompt that was now brought to light prompted investigators to take a closer look into Nicholas. When questioned again, he confirmed that yes, he had been fired for owning a gun, but insisted that he'd never owned a twenty two caliber gun, which was the type of weapon used to kill Sophie. However, during the interview
he mentioned that mentioned something that raised eyebrows. He claimed that his roommate Stephen, did own a gun in nineteen ninety three, specifically an H and R Model twenty two caliber revolver. This piece of information reignited interest in the case. Forensic scientist Deborah Gillis, a firearms expert, reviewed the bullet recovered from Sophie's body and confirmed that its markings were consistent with those made by an H and R twenty
two caliber revolver. However, the firing pattern on the bullet was pretty broad and generic to a so bringing this link specifically to this gun didn't really do much. Okay, So investigators couldn't really move forward. They didn't have the actual gun or anything, and it was just kind of something that trailed off. So despite this intriguing new lead, it just seems like they were right back to square
one with not much to go on. It was in twenty eighteen, when a groundbreaking development final only once again reignited the investigation.
If it's one of these fucking pieces of shit, I'm gonna be pissed, you think, because it's like they have been interviewed or thought of now like twice, and it's like they're just living their goddamn life.
But the problem is they can't be. No one has been able to be tied to it yet. So say that, yes, he did have this gun. Say, for example, it was the exact match for the bullet found in her body. We all know, and it's very common saying you need a smoking gun, right, They literally didn't have a gun?
No? Yeah, no, get that.
Someone said he had a gun. They approach him. We heard you had a gun. No I didn't. Can we search? Sure, I don't have no gun? They say they search. I don't know if they did, But say they search his house, they find no gun. What have they got on them?
No?
Yeah, he doesn't have the murder weapon available and investigators can't sit here and start looking at it or anything.
So yeah, well, I know they're in a tough spot for sure.
Yeah I get your pain and anger, trust me. But unfortunately, there's just nothing that the investigators can do. What they need is a DNA link. Unfortunately, now, thankfully, as I was mentioning in twenty eighteen of groundbreaking development finally reignited the investigation once again. And this was from a Virginia based laboratory specializing in the genealogical databases. So basically, they enlisted the help to identify They enlist the help to
identify potential suspects in decade old cases. The lab uses a technique that's become increasingly well known, something that we've talked about on this podcast a few times now, with this process involving using DNA from crime scenes to build a family tree, often by comparing it to DNA profiles uploaded by the.
Public somewhere, yeah, on their own will.
Yeah. So if you go to like ged match or some like ancestry platform and ancestry dot com. So if I were to upload my DNA there trying to see the family tree and all that sort of stuff, police can now access that database and if my cousin committed a murder, they might be able to connect my cousin's DNA through family tree building because I put mine online.
Yeah, Which it's so interesting, really well.
In all honesty, many people suspect that platforms like ancestry dot com were put out there for this purpose.
Yeah, well really that would just be brilliant.
Yeah, one hundred percent, whether it was though on purpose, or whether it's just you know, a happy byproduct of the platforms, they're able to do this, And on October tenth, twenty eighteen, the lab contacted Alaska State Troopers to report they had actually successfully created a DNA profile for the suspect and uploaded it to the public genealogy database. The results were promising. They found two matches to the individual who were likely second cousin or closer, and a third
match who was likely third cousins or closer. So with this lead in hand, the lab began this painstaking process of building the suspect's family tree, working backwards from these genetic connections, trying to see if they could find who would likely match the DNA. By December eighteenth, twenty eighteen, the lab had made a major breakthrough. They informed investigator Michael McFerrin that they had identified a likely relative of
the suspect. The data revealed a relationship equivalent of half sibling, such as like an aunt or an aunt to a nephew or a grandmother to a grandson that close. Okay, well, so they found a specific individual who is related to this person that closely.
Dan, dang, here we go.
Yeah, so they auditionally found that because of the suspect in this relative, this sorry, suspect and this relative shared the same X chromosome in the DNA that they were able to determine the suspect was likely on the mother's
side of the family. So using all of this breakdown, basically what happened is they were able to identify the ant of the murder murderer whoa hey, the ant had uploaded her DNA to a platform like ancestry dot com and because of that, they were able to fit down that this individual was the man by the name of Stephen Downs.
Oh my gosh, of course.
Okay, yeah, so sorry, that DNA stuff, it's really complicated to talk about. I don't even fully understand it, so it's a bit muddled through that. But Stephen Downs is the suspect, and Stephen Downs was reported to be the one with the twenty two caliber revolver at.
The Yeah, dang, I mean, yeah, better late than never, But that's how I struggle with that when they literally get to live like so many years.
Yeah.
Now.
Stephen was born in August thirty first, nineteen seventy four, in Maine, where he grew up and later graduated from high school in June of nineteen ninety two. That fall, he left Maine to attend college at the University of Alaska and Fairbanks. At just eighteen years old, he was living in Barlot Hall, the same dorm building where Sophie was murdered. Now, as he previously noted, Steven's roommate Nicholas Staser,
also lived in Barlot Hall at the time. After graduating from UAF in nineteen ninety six, Stephen's life appeared to be relatively uneventful. He spent some time in Arizona before you know, eventually returning to his home in Maine, where he worked as a nurse in the city of Auburn. He had no prior arrests, no criminal record, and no reason to be in any sort of law enforcement database.
This piece of shit was a nurse. Yeah, came to become a nurse, correct and like okay, well, yeap.
This is why his DNA was never matched to the profile. He never did anything, no criminal history. His DNA had never been entered.
That's shocking to me that they would do that. He would do something like that, brutal and then just never again do anything else.
Yeah, So thankfully through genal I can't say this word today, genealogical, there we go, DNA Stephen was finally identified as a suspect, and here we are, we have a breakthrough. Investigators have the name, they have the individual. They knew he owned that gun, but as far as I'm aware, they weren't able to find the murder weapon. But on February thirteenth, twenty nineteen, after nearly twenty six years of dead ends
and unanswered questions, investigators finally confronted Stephen Downs. Working together with Maine State Police and Alaska State Troopers, they interviewed Stephen at his home in Auburn, Maine. During the interview, Stephen acknowledged that a girl had been murdered at Barla Hall during his time there, but he admitted he didn't know her or even ever having content with her. Well,
of course, yeah, it wasn't me. When officers showed Stephen's photograph, sorry Stephen, photographs of Sophie, he claimed to recognize her, but only from the missing person's photos and memorial posters and stuff that had been put up around campus following her murder. He continued to deny, you know, ever meeting
her seeing her in person. He explained that he lived in the third floor Bartlett Hall and said that he spent much of his spare time visiting his girlfriend, who lived on the fourth floor, so he claimed to have no reason to ever go on the second floor whatsoever where Sophie was even discovered, which Hey might have been part of. Is I'm going to go somewhere where I'm not supposed to be or no one will ever suspect
that would be yeah right. The next day, February fourteenth, twenty nineteen, a search warrant was executed at Stephen's home. Investigators collected a swab of his DNA for comparison to the DNA sample recovered from Sophie's body back in nineteen ninety three. When the results came back, there was no doubt Stephen Down's DNA was an exact match for the DNA profile of Sophie's killer.
Oh man, wow, okay, like they were just like so close so many times? Really?
Yep?
And then just didn't have didn't have enough exactly.
Not only that his roommate was a security officer who helped secure the scene. Mm hm so, And if only if only that security officer was like, hey, shit, she's got a gunshot to the head. My roommate has a gun. If only he drew those connections earlier.
Well, he might, like he might have though.
He may have your right, he may have been maybe.
He may have known.
He may have known suspect and hiding the trail. He may have been in denial too. He could never do that, no way.
Right, Well, yeah, there were friends like you would never think that your friend is capable of something like that exactly.
So Now, on February fifteenth, twenty nineteen, Stephen Downs was arrested and officially charged with the rape and murder of Sophie Surgery. After decades of uncertainty, justice for Sophie was finally within reach. The monumental breakthrough had been achieved through the tireless work of dedicated investigators and advancements in DNA technology. What had once seemed like an impossible case had finally
been solved almost thirty years later. So props to all the investigators who never let this case go.
Yeah. No, I mean like it's thirty years or so down the road, but still, yeah, that more than never, right.
Twenty six years exactly? Well, I don't know exactly, but it's twenty six years. Okay, I'm not sure the extra days within, but it was twenty six years. So Stephen was not I bailed bail, and in August of twenty nineteen, he was extradited from Maine to Alaska to face the charges in Fairbanks for Sophie's love one. The arrest was a bit bittersweet. Sophie's mother, Elena, had spent years haunted by her daughter's death, longing for answers, and often just
breaking out in tears randomly and yeah geez. Tragically, she passed away in twenty twenty one, two years before Stephen would be convicted. While she did not live to see him face justice in court, she at least lived long enough to know that her daughter's killer had been caught.
Yeah, which is good.
Yeah. So in January twenty twenty two, Stephen Down's trial began at Fairbanks Superior Court. His defense team attempted to poke holes in the prosecution's case, focusing on the DNA evidence. They argued that the presence of DNA's DNA didn't definitively prove his guilt, suggesting instead that it might have been the result of a consensual encounter.
Okay, yeah.
They also pointed out that the other fingerprints and hair samples were found at the crime scene as well, imploying someone else might be responsible for the murderer. However, since the crime scene was a shared college dorm bathroom, no shit, there's other hair and fingerprints and stuff to be found. But his DNA was found in Sophie.
Yeah, so.
Yeah, this argument held little weight. The jury saw through these attempts to create doubt, and after deliberating for two days, they returned with their verdict. On February tenth, twenty twenty three, Stephen Downs was found guilty a first degree murder and first degree sexual assault in the death of Sophie Surgery. On September twenty six, twenty twenty three, Superior Court Judge Thomas Temple sent in Stephen Downs to ninety nine years
in prison, the maximum penalty allowed under Alaskan law. Okay, and there he will rot good. And that's the story of Sophie.
I mean, and he's a freaking lucky asshole that he got twenty six extra years.
No shit, I hope.
It just haunted the shit out of him. But it doesn't. I don't know it could have, but it just seems like it probably didn't.
But yeah, it could have. I hope it fucking did. I really hope it did. And I hope he had kids that and how like, wow, you're a piece of shit and I'm never talking to you again. And then he lost some fucking loved ones because he took a loved one away from someone else.
Well I kind of hope that he didn't have kids, though, because then those kids have like this world's piece of shit father.
Well, yeah, you know what, I know what you mean.
I know what you mean. He probably did have a family, though he might have.
I didn't. I didn't look into it. I do remember them the defense saying something about how like his sentence should be lessons because it's like you're denying him hugging someone ever again, a loved one ever again. And it's like, what the fuck do you think he did to Sophie? And yeah, your family, Yeah.
I like, you're just like, I don't give a shit about this guy.
I honestly didn't. I didn't really want to research so much, so I thought, you know what, fuck it, I'm not looking into that. I kind of love that because he sucks. Yeah, douche canoe.
Well, yeah, the fact that he was able to get away with that, you know, it's too bad like that. They couldn't have just you know, taken like everyone's DNA who lived in this dorm or something, right, But I know you can't really do that.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know how that shit works.
Full. I'm pretty sure it would have had been voluntarily given. Yeah, and again, you have a dorm like, let's let's take just an average dorm room number. How many people you think would live in a dorm building. You clearly we have at least four floors on this dorm that we know of. Let's say, I don't know, you have two people per room? How many rooms per floor?
Seven? I don't know.
I'd say sixty is what I was going to say.
Holy shit, Okay, I.
Will maybe maybe not that big. I guess, well, he.
Had said that at one point, you'd said over one thousand people live on campus.
I think it was sixty or was it thirteen hundred, thirteen hundred and sixty or sixteen hundred and thirty is what I want to say. Let's just say fifteen for an even So fifteen hundred people live on campus. How many dorm buildings do you think there would be? Let's say, let's say three, So you have five hundred people per dorm building. So you have five hundred people who have
granted access to this building. How are you going to collect DNA all of those people, especially given that you only have a week and people are free to go and everything. By the time she was found, he's probably already gone off campus.
Well yeah, and they already had known that there was so many security issues that it could have really had been anyone. So I mean how they most likely probably thought it was someone from you know, outside.
Yeah, So I don't think they were even in a week, been able to have talked to everyone, let alone collect DNA from everyone, even if it was you have to if they had a warrant for it all, you know what I mean.
I just find it so hard to believe though, that this guy would be such a mom like he would have this streak of just being a complete monster. In one act here and then just nothing again.
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either, but it is that's what happened.
Well, especially too, because like when you get away with shit, it's like, oh yeah, I can do this again. Like I bet you he did something else.
He might have Oh gosh, maybe he ended up turning into one of those nurses who like fucking kills people with drugs and shit. Yeah, just to like saytiate his fucking sick fantasies.
Didn't you share something in their day where it was like on social where it was this nurse like broke the bones of newborn babies. Oh yeah, mek you or something? Yeah, oh god, some people are just so fucking disturbing.
Right like geez, oh yeah I hated her. Oh yeah, thanks for making me think of her again.
Appreciate that anytime, anytime.
Well, thank you guys for being here again. Shout out to Alena for recommending that case over on Patreon. If you want to join Patreon and maybe recommend a case, I mean, you can recommend a case off Patreon too, just hire a chance of us seeing it and actually talking to you. Over on Patreon, you can sign up. All of our links are in the description of this podcast, not only for Patreon, but for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all that sort of stuff. Message us, sign up, support us,
Hey you're here right now. We appreciate the shit out of that, because that's still supporting us right to the very end of the show. While I'm talking like this, for whatever reason.
I just have to say, like Ripley knows when we're done, Like she just stood up and came for pets, like it is unreal. Anyway, that's really side.
Not sorry, Nichole's just getting into the dog.
Well. I'm just like, wow, she knows we're done and we can like give them move. Yeah, okay, so until next episode, stay wicked.