Dark Downeast - The Murder of Sophie Sergie Part 2 (Alaska)

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

26 years is a long time to wait for answers in an unsolved homicide, but in 2019 the family of 20-year old Sophie Sergie finally had a glimmer of hope that closure was possible. Familial DNA evidence led cold case investigators from Alaska all the way to Auburn, Maine and to the doorstep of the man now charged with the murder of Sophie Sergie.The trial of Steven H. Downs began in January 2022 and continues as we speak. If you haven’t tuned into part I of Sophie Sergie’s story, please pause here and turn back one episode, because in this episode, you’ll hear about the evidence, the admitted mistakes, and the list of alternative suspects that the defense says will change your mind about who committed this violent crime.At the end of it all, we all just want one thing – Justice for Sophie Sergie and peace for her family. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/sophiesergie2Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

26 years. That's a long time to wait for answers in an unsolved homicide. But in 2019, the family of 20-year-old Sophie Sergi finally had a glimmer of hope that closure was possible. Familial DNA evidence led cold case investigators from Alaska all the way to Auburn, Maine, and to the doorstep of the man now charged with the murder of Sophie Sergi. After years of delays due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the trial of Stephen H. Downs began in January 2022 and continues as we speak. Biological evidence, witness statements, reports of a firearm in the very dorm room where Stephen Downs lived and where Sophie Sergi was killed? What will it all say about what really happened

in the early morning hours of April 26th, 1993? If you haven't tuned in to part one of Sophie Sergi's story, please pause here and turn back one episode, because in part two, you'll hear about the arguably questionable evidence, the admitted mistakes, and the list of alternative suspects that the defense says will change your mind about who committed this violent crime. At the end of it all, we all just want one thing, justice for Sophie Sergi and peace for her family. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the case of Sophie Sergi, part two, on Dark Down East. It was December 18th, 2018, when the phone in investigator Randy McFerrin's office rang out, signaling the news he'd been waiting to hear for two months.

In reality, the wait had been much longer, 25 years of waiting for something to happen in the long-standing cold case murder of Sophie Sergi. The genetic genealogist on the other end of the call explained to McFerrin that their extensive analysis, comparison, and review of biological evidence collected at the crime scene over two decades earlier was complete, and they had what they believed to be a match. The explanation was technical and yet clear. Here it is directly from the charging documents filed in February of 2019. The lab identified a likely relative of the suspect. The amount of genetic information shared between the relative and the suspect was consistent with a second-degree relationship, which includes half-siblings, an aunt, nephew, or a grandmother-grandson relationship. Because the relative also shared the same X-DNA, female DNA, as the suspect's DNA profile,

the lab reasoned that the connection between the two came from the suspect's mother's side, since males only inherit X DNA from their mothers. The genealogy research revealed that the identified relative has no known maternal half-brothers and no known biological children of her own, and therefore had no biological grandchildren either. Through a thorough process of elimination, the lab determined that the known relative to the DNA profile only had one possible second-degree relationship with a male relative, her nephew, Stephen H. Downs. Stephen Harris Downs was 44

years old in 2018 when the link between his biological evidence found at the crime scene was matched to an aunt's DNA profile via a public DNA database. Stephen was born in Maine and grew up in the Pine Tree State until he graduated Edward Little High School in 1992. At fall, he enrolled at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the same school year that Sophie Sergi was found beaten and shot in a UAF dormitory bathroom. Stephen lived in the same building where the murder occurred, Bartlett Hall. It was the most investigators had in this case since the day it happened, but moving on this suspect would take careful coordination and cooperation. Two months after Randy McFerrin received the report from the DNA lab,

Alaska State Troopers, working alongside Maine State Police, caught up with Stephen Downs at his home in Auburn, Maine. On February 13th, 2019, Maine State Police and Alaska State Troopers contacted Stephen Downs at his home to ask him some questions regarding what he remembered about the night Sophie was killed. Investigators interviewed Stephen originally in 1993, as well as his roommate, Nicholas Dazer,

but both men claimed they had nothing of significance to report at the time. When they spoke to him in 2019, Stephen again said he remembered that a girl was murdered in his dorm, but he didn't know her and he didn't have contact with her. According to the charging document, officers showed Stephen a photo of Sophie Sergi, and while he remembered seeing her face before, he stated that it was only from the posters that had been plastered across campus after the murder. Though his room was on the third floor of Bartlett Hall,

Stephen told officers that he usually stayed with his girlfriend on the fourth floor, and that's where he was on the night of April 25th and into the early morning hours of April 26th, 1993. Stephen didn't think he'd ever been on the second floor, ever. He was adamant. If he knew anything, he, quote, would have been forthright from the jump. I never knew or saw anything to begin with, End quote. During his conversation with police, Stephen speculated that the person responsible for Sophie's murder was one of the soldiers from Fort Wainwright who were known to party in Bartlett Hall. But beyond that, all Stephen could say was, I remember the pictures. It's terrible. Poor girl. McFerrin told Stephen, quote, we have a very strong reason to

believe that you're responsible for this, end quote. Stephen replied, quote, wow, that's kind of intense, end quote. Investigators knew they needed to obtain a direct sample of Stephen Downs' DNA to solidify the connection made by familial DNA analysis. According to Downeast magazine, police had him under surveillance for days before they contacted Stephen in person, hoping to get their hands on a discarded cup or a tissue and collect the sample that way. But no luck. They'd have to be more forward in their approach. The next day, February 14, 2019, Maine State Police executed a search warrant at Stephen Downs' Auburn, Maine home. Part of the search warrant included a cheek swab from Stephen so they could immediately send a sample for comparison at the Maine State Crime Lab. While investigators had

a familial match, they needed a first-degree connection between Stephen Downs' DNA and the biological evidence found on Sophie's body. This DNA match testing was not possible before February of 2019. You see, Stephen Downs didn't have any past run-ins with the law that would have required him to submit a DNA sample to a database. Though they had the biological evidence at the crime scene from day one, there was nothing to compare it to. Nothing to point to Stephen Downs until familial DNA testing set investigators hot on his trail. The DNA comparison from the freshly obtained cheek swab was a match. It came down to you.

You're the source of DNA, McFerrin told Stephen. Stephen replied, quote, There's no way that could be possible. There's got to be some mix-up. End quote. During the search of Stephen's home, investigators also found a gun, one matching the description of the firearm that Stephen's roommate said that Stephen owned in 1993, a.22 caliber revolver. With the DNA match and other evidence, that was enough. On February 15, 2019,

Stephen Harris Downs was charged with the rape and first-degree murder of Sophie Sergi. DNA in a long-standing cold case of an indigenous woman from Alaska was responsible for tracking down a suspect that evaded the law for decades. This news made national headlines. Some of the headlines went so far as to say that the case was solved, though the arrest was only the beginning of a process that would take two years and counting before potentially solving this case could be a reality. Stephen Downs pleaded not guilty to the charges in August of 2019 and was extradited to Alaska to await trial, where he was held without bail. In November of that year, the defense team of Stephen Downs, spearheaded by attorney James Hoanick, filed a series of motions seeking to have the charges against his client thrown out.

The Sun-Journal reported the contents of those motions, including Hoanick's description of the crime scene as badly botched, the investigation flawed, and the only shred of physical evidence linking Stephen Downs to the crime scene was a few spermatozoa molecules. None of the hair, fingerprints, blood, or the boot print also found at the scene could be conclusively linked to Stephen Downs. Further, the defense team challenged the use of familial DNA on

genealogical sites, calling it an unconstitutional search. Finally, in a move that would later set up the defense strategy at trial, Hoanick pointed to an alleged confession made by another man to his sister that he killed Sophie Sergi. That man, according to court records, had a history of violence against women and was even connected to another homicide. Those motions were scheduled for pretrial hearings in April 2020,

but the novel coronavirus pandemic delayed these hearings for nearly a year until February 2021. The pretrial hearings were particularly revealing of the case details. Among the issues raised by attorney James Hoanick, he sought to have the interview with Stephen Downs conducted by Randall McFerrin thrown out as evidence, along with a gun found during the

search of his home and the DNA collected by swabbing Stephen's cheek. His reasoning was that the information used to obtain these search warrants and collect the evidence was inaccurate, classifying it as fruit from a poisonous tree. This legal phrase is used to indicate evidence that's been illegally obtained. As reported by the Sun Journal, the affidavits used to obtain the search warrant stated that a student told police in 1993 that Stephen Downs and his roommate Nicholas Dazer both owned guns at the time of Sophie Sergei's murder. However, this statement by the witness was inaccurately reported in the affidavit. The student had only said he believed Nicholas Dazer to own a gun, not Stephen. Whether Stephen

Downs owned a firearm in 1993 was a big part of the probable cause for the search warrant in 2019, and investigator Randy McFerrin admitted this inaccuracy. However, he testified that it was an unintentional mistake. Stephen Downs' attorney also wanted the recorded interview from February 2019 removed from evidence, raising the issue of whether police should have stopped questioning Stephen when he asked if he could have a lawyer present for the DNA collection and that he believed he should have someone speaking on his behalf. McFerrin defended the continued questioning, though, saying Stephen Downs never explicitly requested a lawyer or asked to stop the interview. Several other issues were raised by the defense in the nearly 200 pages of pretrial

motions during the February 2021 hearings. Among most significant of these challenges by defense centered on the biological evidence tying Stephen Downs to the scene of Sophie Sergi's murder. Attorney Huannik argued that the presence of spermatozoa molecules in the vagina of Sophie Sergi could indicate sexual intercourse, at most, he said, and that it cannot be determined when it was deposited or the circumstances. Writer for Downeast magazine Catherine Miles explored this topic in the October 2020 issue. She learned from the defense documentation that a medical examiner who reviewed the case stated that there was no evidence of sexual assault found and that the presence of spermatozoa does not mean Stephen Downs sexually assaulted Sophie, despite that

being one of the charges brought against him. Miles learned from legal scholars that finding such biological evidence could be the result of touch DNA or trace evidence transferred to a victim through washing machines or bathrooms, lockers, or other shared spaces. Listen, I know it's the job of the defense to raise these issues for their client, but I'm feeling quite sick about the insistence by the defense that Stephen Down's sperm was found on Sophie's body because of a possible consensual encounter, or by using the same washing machine. By all accounts, Sophie did not have a boyfriend, she was shy around boys, and it would be enormously out of character for her to have a secret sexual relationship with a guy her friends didn't even know about. Again, it's the job of the defense

to raise these issues, but to me it just feels so dismissive and gross. In any event, Attorney James Hoanick ultimately withdrew his motion for all DNA evidence to be excluded from trial. Despite his concern about how the DNA sample was collected, how familial DNA testing was used by investigators to identify Stephen Downs in the first place, the defense wants these issues to be heard by the jury as part of the case. The pre-trial hearings revealed that investigators recovered not one, but three guns during the February 2019 search of Stephen Downs' home. One of those firearms, a.22 caliber revolver, was similar to the gun that was believed to be the murder weapon. Attorney Hoanick wanted that evidence thrown out though, saying that Stephen Downs purchased that gun in 2015. Similar or not, it does not prove that

Stephen killed Sophie or that the very gun they found in his house was used to do it. Judge Thomas I. Temple considered the testimony of a firearm examiner and other expert witnesses from the Alaska State Crime Lab, who said that the bullet found in Sophie's skull could have been fired from one of those firearms found in Stephen's house, but that the bullet was so damaged, it was impossible to make a conclusive determination. Ultimately, the judge decided to allow evidence of the three firearms found in Stephen Downs' home at trial. As the pretrial hearings continued into mid-April of 2021, the defense was ready to raise their biggest issue with a case against their client Stephen Downs. And this issue revealed the likely strategy they'd employ to raise reasonable doubt at trial. The defense presented 16 alternative suspects. Hoanick told Judge Temple that after reviewing over 8,000 pages of investigative

material and nearly 100 audio files of interviews conducted by investigators with these persons of interest, he had evidence that at least a number of other men could have been involved with the rape and murder of Sophie Sergi. Let's talk about the three suspects that Judge Thomas I. Temple ultimately decided to allow at trial. Are there any names that come to mind before I tell you? Because the first name that has bothered me since I started looking into this case, that's Nicholas Dazer. You'll remember that Nicholas Dazer was Stephen Downs' roommate in 1993, and that Dazer had been fired from his job as a security guard for possessing a firearm on campus. He was clearly considered an alternative suspect during the early investigation,

and it was even more compelling that an investigator at the time theorized that the crime could have been committed by someone in law enforcement. However compelling, Assistant Attorney General Jenna Gruenstein refuted this theory presented by the defense, saying that the law enforcement theory was in reference to markings on Sophie's body that were believed to be from a taser, but that was later disproved. Further, taser's DNA could not be matched to any of the other evidence found at the scene, such as hairs and fibers. But regardless, the judge has chosen to allow the defense to introduce Nicholas Dazer as an alternative suspect for Sophie Sergi's murder at trial. The next alternative suspect that the judge will allow the defense to discuss at trial

is Gregory Thornton. Thornton was identified in a photo lineup by a witness who said she saw him, or a man who looked like him, leaving the bathroom where Sophie was found. According to reporting by the Sun-Journal, Hoanick told the judge that police reports aren't clear as to whether Gregory Thornton's fingerprints were found or eliminated from being at the crime scene. Witness statements said that Thornton was carrying a.22 caliber pistol on campus, and he lived with a student, quote, inappropriately, end quote, in Bartlett Hall at the time of the murder. The student Thornton was living with told investigators that Gregory disappeared for a few days after Sophie's body was found.

Assistant AG Gruenstein told the judge that Gregory Thornton's DNA didn't match evidence from the crime scene, and the witness who picked him out of a photo lineup could have been misremembering, as the student picked two men in the same lineup. The other was just a filler, despite having stated only seeing one man leaving the bathroom that night. Hoanick told the judge, quote, we think he clearly had something to do with this crime, whether he killed Sophie Sergi or not. The third alternative suspect that Judge Thomas I. Temple will allow the defense to present at trial is Kenneth Moto. A female student was in the bathroom in the early morning hours of April 26, 1993, when she saw a man leave the bathtub stall. It was unusual,

given that this was a girl's only floor and a girl's bathroom. She told police in 1993 that he was about 5 feet 8 inches tall with black hair wearing a gray t-shirt. Defense attorney James Hoanick told the judge that two days later, police questioned a man named Kenneth Moto, and he was wearing a gray t-shirt at the time. The prosecution challenged this, of course, saying that gray is too common of a t-shirt color to point to anything conclusive. But the defense had more. They claimed that Kenneth Moto confessed. According to the Sun-Journal, Hoanik told the judge that Kenneth Moto's sister gave a statement to police in 2009

saying that her brother confessed that he killed Sophie Sergi and that a knife was involved. This information about a knife, Hoanik said, had not been made public. What's more, Modo's criminal history after 1993 includes violence against women and serving time for manslaughter. The defense really likes Kenneth Modo for this crime, but the state says that his photo wasn't picked out of a lineup by the witness who claimed she saw a man leaving the bathtub stall that night. The sister who told police about her brother's confession is now deceased. However, attorney James Hoanick plans to call Kenneth Moto himself to the stand during trial.

The judge will allow the defense to question Kenneth Moto about his relationship with Sophie, his whereabouts on the night of April 25th and the morning of April 26th, 1993, and whether he really told his sister he killed Sophie Sergi. The pre-trial hearings were a glance into what the trial of Stephen Downs might look like, what evidence could be presented, and the strategies potentially at play when the defense challenges the state's case against their client. For me, and you know I don't interject my opinion very often on Dark Down East, I just can't get away from the DNA evidence. I know it does not indicate when or how or why that biological matter was found on Sophie Sergi's body, and I know that no other evidence at the scene could be tied to Stephen Downs,

but I can't get away from it. I wonder what the jury will weigh as the most important detail when considering the guilt or innocence of the man on trial. The jury will also have to consider whether Stephen Downs fits the profile of a killer. According to the characterization of Stephen Downs by his defense team, in 1993, Stephen was a healthy, good-looking, popular, happy, intelligent, deansless student from a solid family in Maine. Not the kind of person you'd pin for a cold-blooded and violent sexual killer. But anyone can make claims about someone's character. Proving it is another thing. The charging documents noted that Stephen Harris was working as a nurse when he was arrested. Anyone can easily search the

license record of an individual working in the medical field in Maine, and so I popped his name into the online database. According to the record, Stephen H. Downs' license history begins in July of 2011, and he has one instance of disciplinary action against him. In the Consent Agreement for Warning in Education, it explains that in 2016, Stephen Downs was fired from his job at Harris House, a residential care facility in Livermore Falls, Maine. He was fired for a totality of substandard performance. The report also found that in January of the same year, Downs made comments to a co-worker that made the individual uncomfortable, and again in March of 2016, made statements to a different co-worker about a matter of resident care that again made the individual uncomfortable. Downs was also reportedly found to have improperly

administered medications on more than one occasion. Stephen Downs disputed all complaints against him in the disciplinary action. However, he accepted the warning and agreed to complete a course called Professional Boundaries in Nursing. Beyond this instance of professional misconduct and warning, the record of Stephen Downs is uneventful before he was arrested for murder. He was charged with operating under the influence before he graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but he's otherwise got a clean slate. No reported history of violence against women. Not a known repeat offender or sexual predator. You might remember from part one of Sophie Sergi's story that Alaska State Troopers launched a website in the early 90s in hopes of generating new leads and information in her case. Then-Sergeant Jim McCann told the Daily Sitka Sentinel, quote,

I need to hear from the public because the likelihood that he'll go on to kill others is considerable, end quote. Authorities indicated that they had their suspicions that the killer was a repeat offender, and that he had a strong hatred towards women, and used women to express his anger. It's unclear to me if the authorities maintained this profile of their killer throughout the entire investigation, or if the prosecution has evidence that Stephen Downs fits this profile and will attempt to paint him as such during trial. From what I can decipher about Stephen Downs with the limited public information about him, he doesn't fit that

woman-hating repeat offender profile. Again, I can only go on what's reported, what's public. There could be a lot hiding under the surface. I guess we'll just have to see how this all plays out in court. He had the gun, he had the knife, he was there, and he remembered everything about this case but why his DNA was inside Sophie Serkey on the night she was murdered. That was what Alaska Assistant Attorney General John Darnell said in his opening statement to the jury. Meanwhile, the defense set up their own case. Defense Attorney James Hoanick saying, You will have reasonable doubt as to whether Stephen Downs committed this crime.

You will be convinced that he is innocent of this crime. And by the end of this trial, you will know who committed this crime. End quote. The trial of Stephen Downs began in Fairbanks Superior Court in early January 2022. COVID-19 exposures during the very first week delayed proceedings by a few days, but witness testimony continues as we speak. The trial is open to the public and you can stream it online through the Alaska court system. I'll link it for you in the show notes. I've been tuning in myself to learn as much as I can from this firsthand source and I'll continue to do so until the case reaches a conclusion. The trial of Stephen

Downs is expected to last up to six weeks, maybe more if COVID delays continue But when the jury is ready to deliver their verdict, I'll share it with you here on Dark Down East As I watch each witness take the stand and hear their testimony, I'm struck by a common thread. Everyone who knew Sophie Sergi continues to love and miss her all these years later. Their voices falter when reflecting on the loss of their friend, how a kind, generous, quirky soul was taken from their lives, and how the world is truly worse off for it. Whenever I research a case, especially with online sources, I'm sure to take a moment and scroll to the comments on a news story. I've learned a lot from those comment sections, both good and bad, but when it comes to stories about Sophie Sergi, they are all good. A comment from 2019, quote,

I knew Sophie from academic decathlon in high school when we met in Anchorage for competition. Even then, she was a powerful, albeit tiny, young woman. She was a peer that was academically and socially stellar. We met again when we entered as freshmen at UAF when she lived in Wickersham. She would have been a shining star for UAF, Alaska, and women. Her death has troubled me for 20 years. End quote. Another from the same year, quote, I hope that Sophie's death can be solved. I don't think anyone really understands what a loss her death is to the world. It was a violent act, not just against Sophie, perhaps targeted because she was that wonderful, but against us all.

End quote. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources for this case include original court documents and reporting by the Sun Journal, the daily Sitka Sentinel, and other publications, as well as the live stream of the trial proceedings for Stephen H. Downs, ongoing now in Alaska. A full list of sources is linked at darkdowneast.com.

If you are new to the podcast, if you are binging every episode from day one, or starting with this series right here, I would love to hear from you. If you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts and let me know which case has impacted you the most so far. Your reviews are such a big help to the show, and I love hearing which cases, which stories are resonating with you. Now, in this week's Missing New England, I want to bring your attention to the case of Erica Hamilton. 45-year-old Erica Hamilton was reported missing from Stanford, Connecticut on March 22, 2015, when she was in the process of moving. Where she was moving from and to is unknown

or not publicly reported. Erica Hamilton is a black woman, five feet, six inches tall, 280 pounds, and has black and dark brown hair with brown eyes. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Erica Hamilton, please contact Stanford Police at 203-977-5884. Her photo and information is listed at darkdowneast.com slash missing. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder

cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East.