AK AK - Unresolved cases of missing, dead in Nome attract FBI scrutiny*UNSOLVED*

mysteriew

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FBI experts in serial homicide have made a series of unresolved cases in Nome a top priority after a Nome-area Native group expressed concern over reports of deaths and disappearances dating to the 1960s.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday that victims are mostly Native men who traveled to Nome, the Seward Peninsula's commercial hub, from surrounding villages. Many of those communities are Inupiat and Siberian Yupik. The newspaper said 10 cases of death or disappearance have been reported since 1990 alone. A list of 20 suspicious cases, along with reward offers, was released last week by a Native organization in Nome.

The FBI Behavioral Analysis unit in Quantico, Va., has been agreed to profile each case in a search for possible links. The unit, part of the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, has made the case a priority, said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez.

http://ap.alaskajournal.com/stories/state/ak/20051113/3426344.shtml
 
mysteriew said:
FBI experts in serial homicide have made a series of unresolved cases in Nome a top priority after a Nome-area Native group expressed concern over reports of deaths and disappearances dating to the 1960s.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday that victims are mostly Native men who traveled to Nome, the Seward Peninsula's commercial hub, from surrounding villages. Many of those communities are Inupiat and Siberian Yupik. The newspaper said 10 cases of death or disappearance have been reported since 1990 alone. A list of 20 suspicious cases, along with reward offers, was released last week by a Native organization in Nome.

The FBI Behavioral Analysis unit in Quantico, Va., has been agreed to profile each case in a search for possible links. The unit, part of the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, has made the case a priority, said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez.

http://ap.alaskajournal.com/stories/state/ak/20051113/3426344.shtml
That is a very interesting article, thanks for posting it.

What a shame that these suspicious deaths or disappearances have not been looked into earlier.
 
Interesting that the Alaskan authoraties are now calling in the FBI.

This is somewhat reminicent of Andy and Barny calling in "The big boys, up ta Raleigh".
 
Richard said:
Interesting that the Alaskan authoraties are now calling in the FBI.

This is somewhat reminicent of Andy and Barny calling in "The big boys, up ta Raleigh".
LOL... I don't think the city of Nome (pop. 3500) has the resources to track down a possible serial killer(s). The public seems to have lost faith in the local LE after an officer was accused of murdering a teenage basketball star. Sounds like people from surrounding communities asked for outside resources to solve the disappearances.

Anyways, the FBI has a huge office building in downtown Anchorage. They didn't have to travel too far.
 
A string of disappearances and mysterious deaths of Native villagers visiting Nome was not the work of a serial killer, an FBI analysis of the cases has concluded.



An FBI study of 24 missing persons and suspicious death cases, assembled by Nome police, said excessive alcohol consumption and a harsh winter climate were common ties in many of the cases. In nine of the cases, where no bodies were ever found, state and local investigators said they would continue to follow leads.

The FBI conclusions were summarized in a press conference this morning in Nome called by the Native nonprofit Kawerak Inc., which has been working with law enforcement and other Nome-area Native and civic groups on the cases.

A list of victims’ names in more than 20 cases was released by local officials last year in an effort to solicit information from the public. Nome police said they plan to talk with families of the victims in the coming weeks before releasing an updated list of names and disposition of their cases.

Of the 24 cases, three were being left alone at the request of families, two had already been prosecuted criminally and one was a snowmachine accident, said Nome police chief Craig Moates. Nine of the cases were found, by re-examining already-available evidence, to have “definitive outcomes,” Moates said. He said alcohol was a common factor in those cases.

Nine remaining missing-person cases will still get significant attention, Moates said.

“No evidence exists to support the conclusion that a serial killer has been targeting Native people in Nome,” Moates said today, summarizing the FBI conclusions. The FBI cited the lack of trauma shown on recovered bodies, the four-decade-plus time span of the cases and the absence of a common suspect, Moates said.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/7914780p-7808435c.html

registered site
 
Interesting reading on Alaska's missing:

Richard Hills was one of 3,323 people reported missing in the state last year, not a record but far higher, relative to population, than anywhere else in the country. On average, 5 of every 1,000 people go missing every year, roughly double the national rate. Since Alaska began tracking the numbers in 1988, police have received at least 60,700 reports of missing people.

As everywhere else, most cases involve runaways who eventually return home or are found. But Alaska has the highest percentage of people who stay missing.

Investigators have compiled a list of about 1,100 people who remain lost. This in a state whose population -- 650,000 -- is less than that of San Francisco.

"We live in a place," Dolly Hills says, "where people disappear."

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/15/nation/na-vanished15

A collection of people gone missing over the years in the Last Frontier, the clearinghouse is a collection of 80 photographs, and it’s eerie to look through these past disappearances -- all of them still unsolved -- like a Facebook for the vanished.

There’s no rhyme or reason to the demographics of the missing people: they are male, female, young, old, black, white, Alaska Native, and otherwise. A few of the pictures are in black and white, despite their disappearances being fairly recent. Melanie Gould was listed in the database for a brief time before her reemergence from the woods.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/missing-alaska
 
Are these the same cases they talk about in the movie. I forget the name of the movie now .With Mila jolovitch or whatever..
 
The movie Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind was a fictitious tale that used these disappearances as its basis. Many fake web news postings were made up to support the fiction. It infuriated much of Nome and the families of the victims. The movie company had to pay reparation to the local council for posting the lies, done to bolster the credibility for the plot of the movie.
 
Alaska always reminds me of Israel Keyes. Well, most unsolved cases get me thinking about him.
 

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