In 2003, Sonya Ivanoff disappeared from her small Alaskan town and the police were of little lend a hand. Who killed Sonya Ivanoff? 'Dateline' investigates.
Less than 4,000 other folks are living in Nome, Alaska, a the city that, according to its own website, is most definitely best known for being the completing level of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. And whilst this will likely seem like small potatoes to a few city-dwellers, Nome has for sure attracted its fair proportion of people in search of one thing more. Sonya Ivanoff was once a kind of seekers.
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Ivanoff moved to Nome from Unalakleet after graduating highschool in 2002. Her absolute best good friend Timayre told Dateline that Sonya was "determined to make money and go to college." By the summer season of 2003, Timayre joined Sonya in Nome the place they have been roommates, doing everything in combination. On Aug. 11, 2003, Sonya disappeared. Two days later her body was once found out by a volunteer searcher, by the use of The Nome Nugget. Who killed Sonya Ivanoff? Dateline has solutions.
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Who killed Sonya Ivanoff?
Florence Habros and her sister Dannite have been more than likely the ultimate two ladies to look Ivanoff alive, according to the Anchorage Daily News. At kind of 1:30 a.m. the morning of Aug. 11, the sisters saw Ivanoff strolling down the sidewalk in front of their mom's house. They each and every said hello, then watched as Ivanoff were given right into a police automobile that "drove away in a direction that was not toward Ivanoff's home."
On Aug. 13, a body used to be discovered by means of a member of the quest workforce in search of Ivanoff. The next day, authorities "confirmed publicly that the body they had found at the gravel pit outside of town was Ivanoff's." When Florence Habros heard this news, she felt a accountability to inform the police what she saw the night time Sonya disappeared. Habros was additionally terrified because she witnessed Ivanoff depart with a police officer. "I was shaking," she stated.
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After sharing this important data with the police, Habros said nothing happened for weeks. When police in the end did get in contact with Habros, they claimed her identify were taken down unsuitable. It's a common mistake once they receive such a lot of calls a couple of case. Police have been already taking a look at 28-year-old Matthew Clay Owens, who was on accountability that night. Not handiest did the bullet found in Ivanoff's head fit Owens's gun, but he was once being investigated for following or having sex with "more than four young women" whilst on duty.
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By October 2003, he used to be charged with first-degree murder however did not cross to court docket till January 2005. The story gets even more abnormal as Owens took further steps to point the police away from him. What did he do and where is he now?
Where is Matthew Owens now?
The Seattle Times notes that prosecutor Richard Svobodny asserted Owens "committed the murder and a few weeks later staged the theft of a patrol vehicle, where an ominous note addressed to police was found."
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In the word, Owens again and again refers to cops as "pigs" and claims "Sonya was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time." He ended it by threatening to "shoot you in the head if you get close," (Owens v State). This unusual try to shift the focus clear of him did not paintings.
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Owens's first trial "ended in a hung jury." His 2d trial didn't. On Dec. 6, 2005, he was discovered "guilty of murder in the first degree and tampering with evidence." For this, he gained a sentence of 101 years, which has been upheld after two appeals.
On April 27, 2007, then-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin signed the Sonya Ivanoff Act into law. The regulation "mandates the maximum sentence for first-degree murder when committed by an on-duty peace officer." While not anything will ever bring Sonya Ivanoff back, that is the one silver lining that may have come from this sort of tragic death.
Tune into Dateline Friday at 9 p.m. EST on NBC for more on this story.
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