Going West: True Crime - Sonya Ivanoff // 451

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

In the early night hours of August 11, 2003, a 19-year-old Indigenous woman set off on a walk through the rain alone after spending time with friends in her home of Nome, Alaska. But when her roommate noticed her absence the following morning, she reported her missing. And just a day after doing so, her nude body was found shot to death in a gravel pit by an abandoned gold mine. As police put the puzzle pieces together, an unexpected suspect emerged - and fast. This is the story of Sonya Ivanoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west Hello, everybody. Hope you're doing well today. Happy November if you're listening when this episode comes out. I am so surprised that we didn't get any recommendations for this case like over the years because I stumbled upon it randomly a few weeks ago and I just felt like we had to cover it ASAP. It's such an important story. There's so many twists and turns to this case and yeah I just I went to go check to see oh did I like this in the past? But no recommendations. I don't know how that happened. Yeah, I'm kind of dumbfounded by that because this story as you just mentioned is so wild like the details are just crazy here. So listen up. And if you want to see some photos from

this case and all the other cases that we've covered thus far. Go check out our socials, we're on Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we're also on Facebook. And with that, let's get into today's episode, right? Let's do it. Alright guys, this is episode 451 of Going West, so let's get into it. What do Ontario dairy farmers bring to the table? A million little things. But most of all, the passion and care that goes into producing the local high-quality milk we all love and enjoy every day. With 3,200 dairy farming families across Ontario sharing our love for milk,

there's love in every glass. Dairy Farmers of Ontario. From our families to your table, Everybody Milk. Visit Milk.org to learn more. In the early morning hours of August 11, 2003, a 19-year-old Indigenous woman set off on a walk through the rain alone after spending time with friends in her home of Nome, Alaska. But when her roommate noticed her absence the following morning, she reported her missing to the local police. And just a day after doing so, her nude body was found shot to death in a gravel pit by an abandoned gold mine. As police put the puzzle pieces together, an unexpected suspect emerged and fast. Sonya Dora Ivanov was born on April 13, 1984 in Unicleet, Alaska.

This icy native fishing village is home to about 700 residents and is known for its salmon and king crab harvests. And by the way, the name Unicleet means from the southern side due to it being the furthest south Inupiaq community. The little village sits on the coast of the Norton Sound and is located about 400 miles northwest of Alaska's largest city, which is Anchorage. Sonya was the fourth of six children

born to parents Larry and Maggie Ivanov, and she had a super tight-knit bond with her family. Growing up in Alaska in the 80s, the Ivanov family lived in a humble three-bedroom home where Sonya shared a room with her sister and they would dress up in funky outfits, put their hair in fluffy pigtails with colorful hair bands, and play around with makeup a ton. As a teen, Sonya grew into her tall physique and excelled as a top player on her high school's basketball team.

I mean, she was 5'11", so she was a very valuable player. But off the court, she was a dedicated and hardworking student who often made honor roll. While Alaska was certainly influenced by Western culture at this point, Sonia was very proud of all aspects of her Alaskan heritage. She loved the food and the traditional dancing and she held a lot

of value in family and community gatherings. And in a small village where everyone knew everyone, Sonia was a total ray of sunshine who was warm-hearted and goofy, but she certainly wasn't afraid to speak her mind. When Sonia graduated from high school in 2002, she had dreams of attending college in Hawaii, which is obviously a drastically different landscape to the chilly barren surroundings that she was accustomed to, which is probably what was so appealing about Hawaii.

But Sonya was over the cold weather and ready for a change in climate. However, upon graduating high school, not quite ready to make the trek to Hawaii just yet, Sonya instead first decided to move 145 miles away from home to the small coastal town of Nome, Alaska. While not quite as tiny as her hometown, Nnome has a population of about 3600 residents today, and a very, very similar population back in 2003. So nonetheless, a small town.

In the early 1900s, Gnome was a bustling hot spot for gold rush mining, but has since become much, much sleepier. So shortly after moving to Gnome, Sonya moved into an apartment and took up a job as a receptionist at the Norton Sound Health Corporation. She started working and planned on saving money to make that eventual move to Hawaii, but until then Sonya loved Nome and felt extremely safe in her new stomping grounds. In Nome, Sonja entered the Arctic Native Brotherhood pageant, which is an Alaskan tradition where local participants competed in hopes of winning a financial prize. So, you know, hoping to score some

extra money for college, Sonja proudly dressed in traditional attire, including a pair of furry mittens made by her aunt. By the summer of 2003, Sonja's best friend from back home, Timory Taurac, followed in her footsteps, and 18-year-old Timory moved to Gnome as well, where she and 19-year-old Sonja became roommates. The teens would hang out with friends, watch movies, and even play some games of basketball when the weather permitted. And to give you guys a visual, I did say that Gnome was small, but it is also walkable, so the girls got around without really needing to own a car. And again, they felt safe, because while young adults can be often fearless by nature,

strolling the dark small town roads of their new home felt completely non-threatening. Their home village of Unicleed is considered a damp community, which means that alcohol can be imported in limited quantities, but the sale of alcohol is actually prohibited. In Nome, while local option laws do exist, it is legal to purchase and consume alcohol, though generally it's illegal, back in 2002 and also even today. But the main street hosts several saloon style dive bars as long as they have the proper licensing only 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle winter and gnome reportedly reaches lows of negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 34 degrees Celsius while summer temperatures are more mild and average at about 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit or

around 12 degrees Celsius. While the summer temps are still pretty chilly, this time of year the sky glows with daylight for 18 hours and nightfall isn't present until almost midnight. Areas like this are so fascinating to me, like I am so fascinated by the areas around the Arctic Circle and just the concept that it can be dark for most of the day or light for most of the day is so wild like I want to go so bad. Yeah it seems insane to think about the fact that in some of those places it can be dark for numerous weeks and it can also be daylight for numerous weeks. Yeah, it is wild and like you said during this case the the sun did stay out until almost midnight because it was in the summer.

Exactly and such was the case for one fateful summer night in 2003 when the small seaside town of Gnome would be shaken to its core. With the sun still hanging in the sky on Sunday, August 10th, 2003, Sonja and Timoree were getting ready for a night out. Now, the girls often shared clothes and Sonja borrowed a pair of her roommate's Skechers sneakers and threw on a pair of jeans. It was around 11pm that night, which was still pretty early in their eyes, so they bopped over to a friend's house nearby. While there, the group of friends played board games and Sonya drank a beer, although apparently

just one beer. At about 1am, the sun had recently just set and the sky was enveloped in a rainy mist. At around this time, the girls left the friend's house but decided to part ways for the evening. Because Timory had to be up early the next day for work, like literally in six hours, but Sonya had the following day off. They had this little secret handshake where they would kind of pound their shoulder and throw two fingers in the air and say, peace out pal. So as they always did, the girls played out their farewell handshake on the foggy, damp

streets and they headed in opposite directions. Timory was headed to another friend's house to stay the night, and Sonya went the opposite direction back towards their place. As they split off, Timory watched as her best friend skipped around in the rain before her silhouette faded into the night. So Timory awoke at her friend's house at about 5 a.m. later in the morning before heading back home to get ready for work.

But when she arrived back at their shared apartment, she realized that Sonya hadn't come home, and her absence was sort of odd, but not necessarily alarming quite yet. So, Timory just got dressed and headed to her shift at the Aurora Inn, where she worked as a front desk receptionist. In a time before constant contact via cell phones was the norm, of course, back in 2003, Sonya would sometimes call Timory at work. But on this day,

Timory went the rest of her shift without hearing from her friend at all. So later that day, Timory started getting a little nervous and called Sonya's sister, who hadn't heard from her either. But they figured maybe she stayed out late at a friend's place and just hoped that she would return home shortly. However, when the next morning rolled around, Sonya still wasn't home and Timory was growing more and more concerned. She headed to work on Tuesday but this time instead of waiting for her best friend to reach out she called several other friends to try and

gain insight but no one knew where Sonia was. So with that Timory decided the next phone call would be to the police. When she learned Sonya was not in their custody, her nerves grew into panic. So after her Tuesday shift on August 12, 2003, Timree headed to the known police department. At 5.15 pm Tuesday night when she arrived at the station, she was met with some unexpected behavior from the officers. Tuesday night when she arrived at the station, she was met with some unexpected behavior from the officers. Now, she was crying and obviously extremely anxious and in the throes of these emotions, she explained that she hadn't seen her roommate since the early morning

hours of Monday, which, you know, were technically, it's technically Sunday night. It was 1 a.m. on Monday, but it was technically Sunday night and now it's Tuesday night. So this concerned her enough to to come into the station. So at the very least she hoped that the police would take her concerns seriously, especially since it had now been two full days. But police questioned if Sonya was maybe just out partying, clearly not taking the concerns seriously. So Timory was forced to leave without help, and by the next morning, which was Wednesday, the gravity of the situation was really weighing heavy on her when there was still no sign of Sonya. Now, Sonya was scheduled at work at the hospital.

She worked at the admitting desk on Tuesday afternoon, but she didn't show. So on Wednesday morning, her employer contacted police to report her absence as well. And after this call, an official search for Sonja commenced. The known police department involved the local fire squad in the pursuit, launching search and rescue boats into surrounding waters. Using the ample daylight in their favor, many locals embarked on the search for Sonya, including friends and volunteers. At about 8.30 pm on Wednesday, August 13th, a volunteer firefighter named John Larson

was driving around the wet back roads of Gnome along Dredge Road 5. It was day one of the search when the volunteer decided to follow some fresh mud cake tire marks just outside of town. Driving slow on the murky trails, he noticed a nude body in the brush about five feet from the side of the road. Without approaching further, the volunteer jetted to the police station, where he met with an officer before heading back to the scene together. They neared with caution, and realized that the lifeless body amongst a patch of willowy weeds

was indeed 19-year-old Sonia. Void of any clothing, with the exception of one sock on her left foot. Now with this, the investigation into the death of Sonya Ivanov began, and the small known police department had to act quick. The elements were a major concern because the rugged terrain was home to wild animals, and the weather of course was super unpredictable here. So the Alaska Bureau of Investigation was called to the scene, but unfortunately they had to make the trek from Anchorage, so they wouldn't arrive until the following day.

Now, in the meantime, Officer Taylor and Officer Owens from the known police department monitored the crime scene, and another officer headed to break the devastating news to Sonia's family. When the Alaska Bureau of Investigation team arrived the next morning, they preserved the area as fast as possible. I mean, they laid down large plastic tarps all over the trails to just kind of protect any evidence. Also in tow, a criminalist named Carrie Cathcart from Anchorage arrived at the scene of the

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

And keep that in mind. So investigators examined the tire tracks leading up to Sonya's body, but oddly, the tracks insinuated that the vehicle had three matching tires and one mismatched tire. With these potential clues, investigators were determined to find answers, and they needed to do that fast, knowing that somebody in their small community was responsible for murder. As for Sonia's body, as Heath mentioned, she was found nude, which of course insinuated that she was possibly

a victim of sexual assault. But evidence of such came back negative, like the rape kit came back negative. Sonya's face and body were heavily bruised and there was a single.22 caliber bullet wound in the back of her head. It was clear that she had been shot execution style from a close range, but whether she saw it coming or not was still unclear. Shell casings from a gun were absent at the scene as well as the gun itself, making investigators aware that her killer had cleaned up some of the evidence. And it was obvious that she was killed there because, you know, of all the blood at the

scene, but they're ingesting this information to realize that whoever killed her was aware that leaving behind the shell casing would help trace it back to their gun. So aside from that, there was also absolutely no physical evidence on her body pointing to a particular person. No skin scrapings under her fingernails, no unidentified hairs, no fingerprints, no fibers, nothing, and even her clothes were missing, which obviously her clothes likely would have had DNA on them from her killer.

Exactly. So this all proved even further that whoever killed her had evidence, awareness, and knew how to leave their DNA out of a crime scene. Remember that as well. So shortly after her sudden murder, the memorial for 19-year-old Sonya Ivanov was held in the gymnasium at Frank A. Degnan High School, located in her hometown of Uniclete, which was the very high school that Sonia attended in the very gym that she had triumphed on the basketball courts. The service was attended by family, friends, and numerous members from many neighboring communities. Now, due to the bruising on Sonia's face, having an open casket felt kind of inappropriate, but Sonia's sister, Christine,

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

and just like I said like one final act of love. Well with the lack of physical or DNA evidence police started from within and to their childhood together and just like I said like one final act of love. Well with the lack of physical or DNA evidence police started from within and investigated Sonya's inner circle. Now one of the first people who was looked at was Sonya's friend who went by the nickname Kunuk. The two were reportedly friends but some thought that maybe he had some unrequited love for Sonia like maybe he had some romantic feelings And that was not really reciprocated by her. Yeah, he was not her type, but they were friends So when investigators reached out to him Kunik agreed to be interviewed and claimed that he hadn't spoken to Sonia in about two weeks

He said that he had traveled about 73 miles or 117 kilometers to Salmon Lake to go hunting with some buddies on that Sunday night. Again, the night that Sonja is believed to have been killed. And of course, as we know, Sonja was with Timoree and some other friends until about 1am Monday morning. So hours after Koenig would have arrived to Salmon Lake. So it felt very unlikely that he would have driven all that way, come back in the early morning hours, killed Sonya, and then returned. And Koenig's friends were also questioned by authorities and confirmed that they were out hunting at Salmon Lake when Sonya went missing, and that they were nowhere near her.

Now, since the friends on the hunting trip weren't all sleeping in the same room, they couldn't confirm that they had eyes on Koenig all night, so without an iron-clad alibi, officials obtained a search warrant at his home and also for his car. Obviously, just to be sure. So what did they find? Well, in his home they discovered a pair of white and red Adidas sneakers, and on the bottom of these shoes, they discovered a fresh spl white and red Adidas sneakers, and on the bottom of these shoes, they discovered a fresh splotch of blood.

This of course rung major alarm bells, but that wasn't all. As they continued the search of Koenig's property, they entered the garage, and to their surprise, guess what they found? A blue Dodge pickup truck was parked inside. A blue truck that was a similar shade to the blue paint that was found on that branch back at the crime scene. And while looking around the truck, police couldn't help but notice something very odd regarding the tires. The truck had three matching tires and one mismatched tire. Which of course lined up with the theory that the vehicle at the crime scene had dissimilar

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

is normal for a hunter, and he obviously did say that he was hunting that past weekend. But still, some really, really suspicious alignings here. Yeah, it looks basically like everything is pointing to Koenig at this point. Yeah, exactly, but he had an explanation for all this. He said that during the hunting trip, he had shot a porcupine and then while driving, accidentally ran over a rabbit with his truck. So realizing the rabbit was still alive, he got out and stepped on the rabbit with his shoe to make sure that it was dead. So while that is certainly morbid, I mean at least I guess he put it out of its misery, this

could explain the presence of blood. So DNA testing was performed on the blood pertaining to Koenig's vehicle and shoes. And right when authorities thought they had a strong lead, the testing proved that all the blood positively had belonged to an animal. So with this DNA testing, Koenig was cleared as a suspect. And I mean, honestly, this must have been a terrifying time for him, you know, as this was going on, because it was not looking good for a second there. Like, those are some seriously uncanny parallels. It's crazy to me that all of these things seemed so, like you said, aligned, and then they just weren't. Like, what are the odds? The tires, the blue, the fact that it was a truck

and they thought that it was either a truck or an SUV because of the height of the blue paint on the branch. The blood. And of course, Kunik knew Sonya, they had a connection, he apparently had feelings for her at some point. Like, it's just, it's wild. He must've been absolutely freaking out, especially knowing that he didn't do it. Well as for his truck, despite the bizarre coincidence of those mismatched tires, the

tires on Koenig's car did not actually match the tires at the scene and the blue paint on the branch was not consistent with the exact shade of paint on his vehicle. So once Koenig was cleared, a crime lab official was on the lookout for a blue vehicle with mismatched tires, hoping to conjure up another lead. And by a stroke of luck, he found it. A man named Benjamin Niles, who had no connection to Sonya, owned a vehicle that matched the traces at the crime scene.

You know, the tires and the color blue. So on August 12th, after Sonja disappeared, Benjamin had been out driving on the outskirts of Nome with his girlfriend when she asked him to pull over by Dredge Road 5 so she could pee. Unaware that Sonja's body was in the brush nearby, they left the roadside area and continued on their drive. Now a receipt along with the girlfriend's confirmation of his story proved that he had nothing to do with Sonya's murder, and it was purely happenstance that he had pulled

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

It's a vital responsibility. By recycling properly, you help conserve resources, reduce energy use in greenhouse gas emissions, and protect the environment. Toronto's Blue Bin Recycling Program ensures the majority of the right items are recovered and transformed into new products. Recycling right is important and impactful. Let's work together and make a difference, because small actions lead to big change. For more tips on recycling, visit toronto.ca slash recycle right. Shortly before Sonya's murder, as we mentioned, she and her best friend and roommate, Timory,

parted ways at around 1am on August 11th. Sonya was walking solo and passed by a gas station called Tesoro where a janitor was cleaning and noticed her walking by at around 1 15 a.m. Now near this gas station, there was a residential home where two women named Florence and Danita were sitting on the front porch having a smoke. Both women saw Sonya and Danita actually recognized her because they both played basketball and she remembered seeing Sonya previously playing basketball in a game. The women said hello to Sonya, who seemed sober as she casually walked along the sidewalk. Now as Sonja walked past the home,

Florence watched as a car trailed right behind her, going slower and slower, and eventually the vehicle stopped and rolled down the passenger window. The women weren't able to see who was in the driver's seat of this car, but they noticed Sonja talking to the driver through the open window before getting into this vehicle. And the women were absolutely shocked by this, because Sonja had just entered a known police department SUV. As the police car peeled away with Sonia in tow,

the women noted the time as 1.26am. And when these women learned that Sonia went missing, obviously remembering that this happened, they actually reported this to the police station, like right away, but somehow this tip had gotten lost and they didn't investigate it for weeks Well, we're gonna get into why that probably did happen

Now the known police department owned three white Ford Expeditions two of the Ford Expeditions were older models and one of them was a newer model and On the night of August 10th through the early morning hours of August 11th There were just two officers on duty that night. This means that two of the three cars were being used, one older and one newer, and only two officers could have picked Sonia up. Which proves how crucial this tip was, because, you know, at first they're looking at the entire town of Nome and beyond and now they're like wait there's two people this it's been

narrowed down to two people. Absolutely crazy. Well the two officers patrolling Nome that night were Stan Pascoya and Matthew Owens. 28 year old officer Owens had moved to Alaska from Florida while officer Pascoya grew up in Nome. So that night Officer Pascoya was driving the newer car, which was vehicle 983, and Officer Owens was driving one of the older cars, vehicle 322. Both officers were responding to a domestic violence call from approximately 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. on August 11th and after leaving the scene they temporarily parted ways.

And what time did Sonny go missing? 1 a.m. 1 a.m. exactly. So Pascoya claimed to have gone back to the station to make the domestic violence report whereas Owens said that he was on bar closing patrol at 2 a.m. Then just before 3 a.m. the officers reconnected and Owens dropped Pascoya off at home. Meaning that between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. the timeframe that Sonya was picked up, Pascoya would have been at the station, but Owens was

out in Nome unaccounted for. And remember just just a few minutes ago, we mentioned that Officer Owens arrived to the crime scene shortly after Sonja was found, but he was off duty that day and he brought his four-year-old son with him to the scene. So like, why was he there? How did he know to be there if he wasn't even on duty? And why did he bring his son? Like he's just, and by the way way the officer who didn't take Timorese Reporting seriously that day when she went in on Tuesday

That was also Owens. Yeah, exactly. So he basically Tried to downplay Sonya going missing then he shows up to the crime scene with his son weird as fuck What are you doing? On your day off! And it's like, for some reason I feel like he did this because he wanted to appear like he was there to help. But we're gonna get into that. Yeah, I mean he's making some really bad moves here.

So, also as we mentioned, Matthew Owens and Stan Piscoia were the only officers on duty that night as Heath just told us. And the eyewitness reported Sonya getting into a cop car. But to the police, at least, it was considered unlikely that one of them was involved. Obviously, why are police going to believe that one of their own is responsible for this? But still, to do their due diligence, luckily the two officers were set to be secretly questioned in Anchorage on September 23rd 2003, so about six weeks after Sonya's murder. However, hours before the

Anchorage interviews were supposed to take place. A shocking discovery was made at the Nome Police Station. It was 12 46 a.m. on September 23rd when officer Matthew Owens and another official from the Nome Police Department noted that one of the older Ford Expeditions was missing from the station. Now it's important to note that the police cars were usually kept locked with an electronic keypad, but the key was typically kept in the ignition for easy access. So with the vehicle missing and assumedly stolen, the two officers began searching for vehicle 321.

And listen up people, because this is about to get insane. Yeah because after two hours officer who? Officer Owens. Officer Dickhead. He radios the other officer to explain that he found vehicle 321 in an old gravel pit just outside of town at about 2 50 a.m. gravel pit just outside of town at about 2.50 a.m., just across from where Sonia's body was found weeks earlier. And mere minutes later, Owens said that shots were fired by an unknown source and backup officers promptly arrived to the scene. Armed and ready in the gravel pit, the officers were met with no retaliation and it seemed like the alleged shooter had fled.

Oh did he? Yep, he's just gone. So once the coast was clear, vehicle 321 was towed from the gravel pit and returned to the station to investigate what occurred. Now a window on vehicle 321 had been smashed, but shockingly there were no fingerprints in or on the entire car. And when an Alaska State Trooper was searching the car for clues, they noticed an envelope on the seat inside.

After unsealing it, the State Trooper discovered Sonya Ivanov's ID card. And also inside was a typed letter. And here's what that letter said. Pigs. I hate cops. I hate every one of you. Sonya was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do not know her.

As you can see, it was easy for me to take your pig car keys right there. It was not her fault. She thought I was a pig and shit just happened. She was just a person. And I wanted to see if I could that night. Every one of you should be more careful. I watch every move you make. You leave me alone and I will leave you alone.

I will also shoot you in the head if you get close Okay, so first of all First of all this letter is probably the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard it's dumb and then just the fact that you're really just doing the overkill thing by saying pigs pigs Oh the police bacon. Oh the police are pigs You know it's just like Calm down so basically the scene that's being painted by this letter and all the police are pigs, la la la. You know, it's just like, calm down. So basically, the scene that's being painted by this letter is that someone who must hate cops using the term pigs,

huh, remember that, stole the police's SUV and used it to pick up Sonia, who they're claiming is a random person that they did not know. And then before abandoning the car they left a letter behind why To tell them this you know again for some reason and also tell them that they're being watched and essentially not to investigate her murder So it's like why would they do that? Why would they say oh? Yeah? I hate cops. I'm not one by the way I stole a car. It was so easy ha ha ha why would you want to give any idea of what your identity is?

Also, this just makes no sense because if you're going to pick up Sonia, why would you steal a cop car? There's any car you could steal. You could steal any car on the street. You could use your own car. Why a cop car? Especially when there's three cop cars and this is such a small station in such a small area, it doesn't make any sense, which is why it's so funny. And again, there's no reason why you would want to point away from the cops being responsible unless you're one of those people, you know, one of those police officers. And then of course, who found the car?

Matthew Owens, who apparently gets into a gunfight with the perp who was gone by the time that anybody else arrived like Hi, it's like look at me. I I'm a hero I got into this gunfight, and I also found cop car 3 2 1 in a gravel pit. It's just silly so dumb Well, yeah even investigators were pretty skeptical of this letter, with at least one believing that the letter was possibly planted, since the defamatory referral of pigs seemed like it was trying to kind of downplay the importance of cops, and maybe on purpose. So then, investigators became convinced that a cop had written that letter in an attempt to throw them off, and were now even more convinced that a cop had written that letter in an attempt to throw them off.

And were now even more convinced that a cop was responsible for the killing of Sonja. And it seemed very bizarre that the same day the stolen car and mysterious letter were discovered, is also the day that Officer Owens and Officer Pescoia were due in Anchorage for an official questioning regarding Sonia's disappearance and death. And by the way, to get to Anchorage here, it's about an hour and a half flight, and you can't drive because Nome isn't a part of the state's road system, so you have to fly or you have to go by water. But nonetheless, that day, Officer Stan Pascoya went to Anchorage and fully cooperated while officer Matthew Owens did not show up for the questioning Claiming that he was shaken up from the alleged shootout at the gravel pit earlier that morning

The whole scenario was wildly suspicious though and about a week later on October 1st 2003 State troopers took over the investigation at the request of the Nome Police Department. The letter, envelope, and Sonja's ID were all tested for evidence, but of course they lacked fingerprints and DNA, much like the vehicle itself and the crime scene where Sonja's body was found. However, analysis of the letter showed that it could have come from a printer that Officer Owens had access to. Subsequently, Matthew Owens was fired from the police department on suspicion, and on

October 25, 2003, Matthew Clay Owens was arrested for Sonya's murder. In January of 2005, then 29-year-old Matthew Owens went to trial for the murder of Sonya Ivanov, and the trial ahead would prove to provide damning evidence against him. The state granted evidence proving that the night Sonya was murdered, Matthew Owens had driven to Coffee Creek, which is about 75 miles from Nome. Why is he doing this? Because while in Coffee Creek, he disposed of items into a fire pit. So he drove 75 miles away to dispose of evidence.

But luckily, between the time of his arrest and the trial, officials searched the fire pit where they discovered grommets from a pair of jeans, eyelets from a pair of jeans, eyelets from a pair of Skechers shoes, metal parts from a bra, four keys on a ring, and zippers. And as you probably remember, Sonya was confirmed to be wearing jeans and Skechers when she went missing. So they very much believed that these burned fragments were parts of Sonya's clothes because remember she was found nude except for one sock on her left foot.

Also one of the keys found in the fire pit was replicated and tested on Sonya's home lock and while it did fit in the keyhole, it didn't actually open the door and this was likely due to the damage from the fire but the fact that it fit in the lock was a pretty big deal. But get this, one of the other keys found was proven to belong to Matthew's uncle. Witness statements rang through the courtroom and Matthew's estranged wife, Chinn Johnson, took the stand. She testified that at approximately 4.30pm on August 12th, so the day Sonya's body was found. Her husband called her saying that he needed to go to work because there was a missing

girl. And he asked Chin to not repeat this conversation. Now if this phone call happened at 4.30pm like Chin said. That means Matthew Owens was aware of Sonya's death 45 minutes before Timory even reported Sonya missing at the station. And remember, the search wasn't even taken seriously, nor did it actually begin until the day after this. As we mentioned, evidence was brought forward stating that the bullet that killed Sonya came from a.22 caliber gun.

While no shell casings were found, the bullet proved to have unique grooves, indicating that the gun used had rare rifling. And interestingly, there was a Jennings.22 pistol at the known police station that had a similar pattern, which officer Matthew Owens had full access to. As for the stolen vehicle 321 with the printed letter, the state affirmed that Matthew staged the vehicle theft and implanted the note along with Sonya's ID card to divert the investigation. One witness also testified that prior to the stolen vehicle incident, Matthew's landlord

was at his home and saw Sonia's ID card and wallet in his own living room. That is so crazy. So obviously this guy was like, why do you have that? And Matthew explained it away by claiming that it was evidence that he was planning to bring forward to the investigation, but it seemingly wasn't by claiming that it was evidence that he was planning to bring forward to the investigation. But it seemingly wasn't seen again until it was discovered inside the envelope of the stolen police car. Yeah, the one he apparently didn't write in the car he didn't steal, but that he instead found before getting into a gunfight. Yeah, sure buddy.

While the trial was unable to bring forward DNA evidence, remember her killer was evidence aware, the defense argued that since Matthew worked in law enforcement, of course, he had knowledge of how to cover up a crime. During the trial, Matthew Owens remained quiet and stared at the charging documents during most of this proceeding with his head down. But when he took the stand, he testified that he did not kill Sonja. While the conviction was seemingly imminent, the Gnome jury deliberated for five days, but they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict based on the lack of DNA evidence. Now as a result, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial, and a second trial was granted.

While the first trial took place in Nome, the judge moved the second trial to Kotzebue, Alaska, which is a town over a hundred miles away. On October 17, 2005, the second trial against Matthew Owens commenced. The state once again presented their case to the jury, and the trial went on for about six weeks. And this time, after three days of deliberation, a Kotzebue jury made their decision, but it was different from Gnome's verdict. Matthew Clay Owens was convicted of murder in the first degree for killing Sonya Ivanov

and tampering with physical evidence. Now naturally Matthew attempted to appeal his conviction stating that there was just simply not enough evidence but was denied the request for an appeal. Then in late 2005, Matthew Clay Owens was sentenced to 101 years in prison. And it seems like the reason that Matthew murdered Sonya may have been sexually motivated, despite there being no evidence of sexual assault. It could have been, you know, retaliation in that way, because just so everybody knows, after he was arrested, multiple women came forward to report that Matthew Owens had sexually

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

And it's honestly, to me, it's almost shocking in some ways that Matthew was pursued by investigators in the way that he was, because in some cases that we've covered that has an officer, you know as the perpetrator their colleagues Don't take it seriously because police officers are supposed to serve and protect, you know, not harm the community Which is why Sonya's mom later said quote. I never thought I would lose a daughter to a policeman They're supposed to protect it kind of messed up my trusting of police officers They're supposed to protect. It kind of messed up my trusting of police officers. Yeah, and also on top of this, you know,

a lot of times people like to just stick up for their own. Like, police officers aren't gonna say anything. That's what I mean. If one of their own is doing something illegal or wrong. So if that was happening in that department, I am very, very glad that they took this investigation a lot further. Yeah, me too. It's great that they did pursue him and instead of saying oh

One of our guys wouldn't do that. Let's oh, yeah, no, he's Kuhnick again, right? He's a police officer He would never do that. He's there to serve and protect but unfortunately we do see this happening Yeah, but here they did they did persevere They did look into him and they did their due diligence. And we're so, so grateful for that at the very least. But unfortunately, as we know, crimes committed against indigenous women are not a rarity, as we often mention

when we cover such cases. Cause in fact, it's estimated that Native American and Alaskan Native rates of murder, rape, and violent crime on reservations are up to 10 times higher than national averages. According to the National Crime Information Center in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American and Alaskan Native women and girls. And this is based on information from the U.S. Department of Justice's

Federal Missing Persons Database. And while these numbers are staggeringly high, a lack of recognition and institutional documentation of violence on Indigenous women and girls remain a major issue. And because of this, reports suggest that there is no true count of how many native women go missing or are killed each year. And stories like Sonia's remind us that there is still so much justice needed for indigenous women who have been victims of similar circumstances. Moving forward, we must demand justice for more reliable national statistics

along with fair and full media coverage on missing and murdered indigenous persons. Years after Sonya's murder, her legacy proved to make a nationwide impact when in 2007 the Sonya Ivanov bill was signed into law. And her law mandates a maximum sentence for first degree murder to any officer who murders someone while on duty. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. As I mentioned in the beginning, if you want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered, go over on our socials.

We're on Instagram at going West podcast, and we're also on Facebook. Yes, check it out. And if any of you have indigenous cases that you know about, unfortunately, we see this happen a lot where we want to cover an indigenous case, but there is not nearly enough information about it because the news is not doing their job of reporting about them. And also the police is not releasing information. So it's really sad when that happens, but we do love spreading indigenous stories because we very much do recognize how important they are to tell. So please send over any cases you have and any cases in general. We accept everything on goingwestpodcasts.gmail.com.

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