Going West: True Crime - Sophie Sergie // 175

Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. We've got some new equipment in the studio, hope you guys can tell a little bit of a difference here. Yeah, it sounds a little bit better, I think. And if something fun fact, Heath and I, this entire show, have always sat next to each other the whole time and now we're across the table,

Starting point is 00:00:34 so I can finally actually look at your face when I talk. Exactly, yeah. Pretty nice, hello. Hello. So today's case, we have been working on this research for a little over a month as the trial has taken place just waiting and waiting for it all to be over.

Starting point is 00:00:50 And it finally is, a conclusion has been made. So thank you everybody for tuning in and our hearts really go out to Sophie's family after so many years of missing her. Yes, in this case involves a missing and murdered indigenous woman, so it's really, really great to see justice for a case like this, especially one that has been, you know, that's taken so long to see justice, right? Exactly, and I know that there was a lot of frustration with the community and the family regarding how long this case really did take, so absolutely agree.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Yeah, and if you guys are looking for more going west episodes, I always say this. Head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have a bunch of episodes for you to binge. I'm gonna leave it at that and we'll get right into today's story. All right guys, this is episode 175 of going west. So let's get into it. In 1993, a 20-year-old university student in Alaska was hanging out with her friends in the dorms when she stepped out for a smoke.

Starting point is 00:02:22 When she never returned and then missed an important appointment the next day, her loved ones grew concerned. But it all took a horrific turn when her body was found in the dorm bathroom. And after years of searching, genealogical DNA finally brought answers to this case. This is the story of Sophie Sergi. Sophie Sergi was born in 1973 in Pettkiss Point, Alaska, which is a very small village along the Yukon River in Southwest Alaska. Sophie and her family, which included her mother, Elena, and two brothers, Steven and Alexi,

Starting point is 00:03:13 were Yuppeeke Native Americans. And Sophie specifically was looked at as a role model in her village. She was smart, hardworking, and incredibly bright. So when she earned a full scholarship to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, also known as UAF, she was beyond excited. As we know from our recent episode in the Fairbanks Alaska area, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:38 the North Pole murders that we covered back in December, Fairbanks is one of the largest cities in Alaska. And in the early 1990s, it hosted about the same exact population as it does today, around 30,000 people. So still not too big, but it is large for Alaska. Yeah, big, big for Alaska for sure. Yeah. So, and, you know, this is definitely a lot bigger than Pick Kiss Point as well at the time,

Starting point is 00:04:03 which hosted around just 130 people in the early 90s. Wow. Yeah, big change for Sophie. And for reference, the two places PICCUS point and Fairbanks is around a five hour flight from each other because they're on completely opposite sides of Alaska. But after successfully finishing two years at UAF studying to become a marine biologist, Sophie took a year off school because she had to have some corrective jaw surgery. But first she needed to work and save up some money. And this break that she was taking

Starting point is 00:04:37 was from, well, I would say the fall of 1992 until the spring of 1993, but of course the summer of 92 was like an obvious break as well. Right. So Sophie was having surgery right there in Fairbanks, and during that time Sophie stayed with her friend Shirley in Bartlett Hall at UAF. She planned to return to school for her third year in the fall of 1993, but sadly Fairbanks was not very safe at this point in time. There happened to specifically be a lot of crimes taking place on the UAF campus, seemingly

Starting point is 00:05:11 due to UAF cutting desk attendance on dormitory floors, meaning that there was no protection or security for students. And this must have been really scary because you're living on campus, and any old Joe could walk in off the street and enter your dorm. Like definitely not a good idea. Yeah, exactly. And this actually happened years prior in 1989, but it proved to be a very bad decision

Starting point is 00:05:35 because during the early 1990s, a number of attacks against UAF students actually occurred. To name a couple incidents that happened in the spring of 93 when this story takes place, one student accused two basketball players of raping her while another basketball player watched, and then just weeks later, a naked drunk man was found in the woman's bathroom of Bartlett Hall, which again is where Sophie was staying with her friend. So things were a bit out of control at this point, and safety for the students was definitely compromised. But even so, it didn't seem many of the students had too many concerns anyway,

Starting point is 00:06:11 as the Daily Sick Has Sentinel stated, quote, some students at the Fairbanks campus previously did not worry over unlocked doors. And this all changed when something happened to 20-year-old Sophie Sergi. At this point, like Heath said, Sophie was just staying with her friend in Bartlett Hall while she had her jaw surgery and orthodontist appointment. So she wasn't there the entire period between the fall of 1992 to the spring of 93 because like I said, she was at home working.

Starting point is 00:06:43 23 because like I said, she was at home working. So due to the surgery, Sophie flew to Fairbanks on Saturday, April 24, 1993 for just a couple days. And after her appointment, Sophie planned to return to pick his point where her mother and brothers were for a few more months until she would return to campus once again for her third year at university. And since she only planned to be in town for a couple days, her return flight was actually on Monday, April 26th, 1993. But sadly, Sophie would never make it.

Starting point is 00:07:18 The night before which was Sunday, April 25th, Sophie was hanging out with a couple of her friends. She'd gone to see a movie with her former roommate, Jo-Leen, and another friend named Eric. And then afterwards, they headed to the Murphy Dome, which is apparently a great spot to see the northern lights, and they watched the sunset. One of them also took a photo of Sophie that's the most widely used of her, and the last photo that would have been taken of her while she was still alive.

Starting point is 00:07:45 And we did post that photo on our social media sites so if you want to go take a look, head on over to our Instagram which is at Going West Podcast, our Twitter at Going West Pod and then we have Facebook groups. So as we stated, Sophie was staying with her good friend Shirley Wasuli and later that night, the two young women along with Shirley's boyfriend Noah enjoyed some pizza and Shirley's dorm together on the second floor of the building. Afterwards, sometime between midnight and 1 a.m., Sophie headed outside of the dorm's building, Bartlett Hall, a co-ed building to have a cigarette.

Starting point is 00:08:20 Only planning to be outside for a couple of minutes. But according to Shirley's boyfriend Noah, he actually suggested that she could smoke in the bathroom on that floor because there was like a big vent in there since it was very cold out that night. Which is not rare for Alaska. Exactly. And just a few minutes after Sophie headed out of the dorm,

Starting point is 00:08:40 Shirley and Noah left to go stay at Noah's room for the night so that Sophie could take Shirley's bed and have a proper place to sleep. And that was the last time that either of them ever saw Sophie again. The following morning, Shirley returned to her dorm room to find that all of Sophie's stuff was still in there. Also the door was unlocked and the light and the TV were on like it looked exactly as it did the previous evening when she left.

Starting point is 00:09:10 Another bizarre thing that morning, so Sophie had missed her orthodontist appointment. Her brother Alexi had received a call to the house from the dentist in Fairbanks, stating that Sophie hadn't made it, which confused him since that was literally the reason that she'd gone all the way back to Fairbanks in the first place. Now before we get into the horrific findings that same day, let's talk about the previous evening again. A freshman at UAF was living in the dorms that semester and her name is Vanessa Allen. She testified in trial that on the night of Sunday, April 25th,

Starting point is 00:09:47 she had a very uneasy feeling as she entered the bathroom on the second floor. She remembered seeing a light on in the area where the bathtub was, which was really never used according to a lot of the students. There was a door that went specifically to the bathtub, and she had never seen it on before in her near year of being a student at that school and using that bathroom. But through the closed door, she could see that the light was on. Now, she had gone in there to take a shower, which she did, but during this shower, she heard various strange noises. She heard what she thought was firecrackers, as well as an odd rustling sound.

Starting point is 00:10:30 Another young woman heard noises too, and this was UAF Senior Jennifer Roy. So she liked many other students, since there was only one week left of school, by the way, had an important exam the following morning, so she was up late studying for it. She decided to take a shower and hopes that it would wake her up and make studying a bit easier, so she headed to the bathroom to do so at about 130 a.m. But she went to the west bathroom on the second floor. So to describe the bathrooms a little bit more, basically there was a bathroom for both sides of the building on each floor, but they shared a common wall and were in the middle of the floor.

Starting point is 00:11:10 So the bathrooms were right next to each other, but depending on which side of the building your dorm was at, is which bathroom you chose to go into. So while Jennifer was taking a shower, she remembered it being very quiet since it was so late. But since the other bathroom was just on the other side of the wall She could hear something happening in there as well Suddenly she heard someone enter the east side bathroom and then go into the bathtub room Which likely was a pretty distinctive sound or possibly the only area in the bathrooms that had an actual door and Then she heard a loud thud against

Starting point is 00:11:45 the wall, along with murmuring. And her first thought was actually that it was potentially a couple who had snuck off into the bathtub room late at night for some alone time. But she couldn't hear exactly what was going on, she just heard voices. And crazy enough, Jennifer was one of the first people to learn about what happened. Because the following day after she had taken her exam in the early afternoon, she returned to her dorm to get some much-needed sleep. And that's when she passed a female janitor in the hall who ran out of the bathroom looking incredibly upset. She could hardly speak, so she pulled Jennifer into the bathroom to show her what she had found

Starting point is 00:12:24 in the bathtub room. And in the bathtub room was Sophie's body. So with that, Jennifer and the janitor ran to get a resident assistant of the building, and then they called the police right away. Sophie had endured a truly terrifying and senseless death, so she had been stabbed in the eye and the cheek, shocked with a stun gun, struck with a blunt object, gagged with a ligature, raped, and shot in the back of the head with a 22 caliber gun. This is just such overkill.

Starting point is 00:13:03 It literally is, and this all happened at a mere 20 feet from countless sleeping and studying students. Sophie died from brain injuries due to the gunshot wound to her head, and her body contained no evidence of alcohol, barbituids, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, or any other drugs, just a little addition there. And her body sat in that bathtub for hours before finally being uncovered. She had only been on that campus for two days

Starting point is 00:13:31 and planned to leave that very day, Monday, to head back home and then return to the UAF campus later on to resume her studies. Yet this happened to her. And how crazy ironic is this that she's at UAF, she was a prior student. She's not even going to school right now. That's what I'm saying.

Starting point is 00:13:49 Yeah, she's not even a student there at that time. And this happens to her. She just happens to be there for two days, visiting a friend. It's so unbelievable to me, especially because she had been going there for two years at that point. Exactly, yeah. It's just insane and so sad.

Starting point is 00:14:05 So it goes without saying that this completely shocked the community and the campus. While homicide investigators got to work on finding Sophie's killer, Bartlett Hall emptied as students found safer housing and other dorms or apartments nearby. And remember, this was like the last week of school anyway, so they were going to be going home soon, regardless. But the students and parents and staff were outraged

Starting point is 00:14:30 that this even happened. And as we discussed earlier, there had definitely been some safety issues with the campus and the area at this time. Yet even so, the day after Sophie's body was discovered, no extra security was posted at the Bartlett Hall entrance, and no one was checking visitors' IDs as they entered the building. That's a huge fuck up for UAF. It's insane. And in fact, a former resident advisor told the Daily Sit Casentinole back in 1993 that he wasn't surprised to learn about the murder because he knew how bad

Starting point is 00:15:06 the university's security was. He stated, quote, it's been an accident waiting to happen. I'm surprised it hadn't happened sooner. Damn, that is a really bold statement about the security and the protection of students on this campus. Well, even you discussed the couple of rapes that happened. Those are just a couple of stories out of more stories throughout the campus.

Starting point is 00:15:30 Right, I'm sure there's more. Yeah, and even after that, nothing was done. And then a murder occurs. And, you know, we'll get into later that they do start making changes. But a murder had to occur for you to make changes. Yeah, it's the setting. The worst case scenario. And then you do nothing about it, really.

Starting point is 00:15:47 Oh, totally. But the campus security chief Dale Florian had this to say, that the campus police would be working extra hours to patrol the dorms until Sophie's case was solved. So it doesn't seem like this was the case, though. And sadly, Sophie's case took years to solve, which I don't think anyone would have guessed. But back to the investigation. So investigators began questioning hundreds of students and residents of Bartlett Hall, and the UAF campus in general, as well as whatever visitors that they could find, who

Starting point is 00:16:20 had entered the building on the night of April 25th. A memorial was held the day after Sophie's murder where more than 300 of the school's native students held a prayer meeting to talk about her death. They also led a traditional dance in her honor as Sophie took a native dancing class as a part of the native studies program on her campus. Sophie's former teacher explained, quote, everybody loved her.

Starting point is 00:16:47 She wanted nothing but good for everybody. This just isn't supposed to happen. Sophie's best friend Shirley spoke at the memorial stating, quote, it's important to know how much Sophie enjoyed life. Don't be bitter. We should continue to pray for the person who took Sophie away from us.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Shirley also read messages from Sophie's mother and other friends from her home village, so it was just this incredibly emotional memorial. But people were very hopeful that her killer would be brought to light and justice for Sophie would prevail. a Alaska troopers and investigators collected various fingerprints, hair samples, semen, and other evidence from the crime scene. But it didn't immediately bring any answers, because remember this is 1993. Sergeant Jim McCann stated a couple weeks after the murder quote, whoever did this is very, very angry at women.

Starting point is 00:17:57 Yeah, we can tell. Yeah. He also mentioned that the killer was likely a man who was familiar with the UAF campus, saying that he quote, fit in. Sergeant McCann followed with, quote, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she was a woman. And he even warned people of the Fairbanks area to be on alert, because this murder may not have been isolated just to the university, which I'm sure just terrified

Starting point is 00:18:24 everybody in Fairbanks thinking that oh my god Should I be worried that there is a killer out there? Right. I mean this is again a town of about 30,000 people so it's not incredibly huge like no you gene where I'm from is about 150,000 people. Yeah, that's such a good point and if something happens in my town People are like whoa a murder in Eugene, but I can't even imagine in a town of 30,000 people. Oh, exactly. Well, six weeks after Sophie's murder, leads continue to Dwindle, and police felt defeated after questioning hundreds of students led to nothing.

Starting point is 00:18:58 As the years passed, protests took place on the anniversary of her murder where people fought for justice in her case. I mean, there were a few potential suspects that were on the investigators' radar throughout the early years of the investigation. So first was a young man named Nicholas Dazer, who attended UAF at the time that Sophie was murdered. He ended up being ruled out because although he did own a gun while he was at UAF, it was a 40 caliber pistol, whereas Sophie was shot with a 22 caliber gun. Also, when tested, Nicholas's DNA did not match what was found at the crime scene.

Starting point is 00:19:36 Another person of interest was Gregory Thornton, who was living in the UAF dorms in Bartlett Hall when Sophie was murdered. living in the UAF dorms in Bartlett Hall when Sophie was murdered. The kind of bizarre thing here about him is that he was living in his friend's dorm, who attended the school, and he was identified as leaving the woman's restroom the same night that Sophie was killed. On top of this, he left campus not long after Sophie's body was found. Now we have to remember that the school year was coming to a close, so all the students would leave, and many students did leave the dorms due to feeling unsafe after the murder. So although there are some things that do seem suspicious with Gregory, his DNA was not

Starting point is 00:20:16 found at the scene and he was ruled out. And they couldn't even test his DNA until like 1999 slash 2000, that's, you know, technology. Yeah, that's another thing we have to keep in mind with this case is that DNA testing really hadn't even made its mark. So it really slowed down the investigation. Yeah. Because that's all they had was the DNA at the scene.

Starting point is 00:20:37 They had like pretty much nothing else. And that's the most horrible part I think about these cases is the fact that these cases happen. And they do have this solid DNA evidence, but it just the technology was just not there so you had to wait. I know it's so frustrating. So there was another potential suspect and his name was Kenneth Motto, who was just 18 years old back in 1993. He came into the picture when a young woman who attended U.A.F. told police that she had seen a young man on the night of Sophie's murder who stood out to her and that he had also

Starting point is 00:21:13 been near the restrooms. So Alaska troopers noted his description and found a young man who matched it, Kenneth Moto, and it turns out he is extremely violent in general and towards women. The description included a young man who stood at 5'9", tall with black hair wearing a gray t-shirt. So kind of a basic description, so I really wish I knew more about how they made the connection to Kenneth Motto because that is very basic. Yeah, that's extremely basic, yeah. So back in 1996, about three years after Sophie's murder,

Starting point is 00:21:48 Alaska State Trooper and Sergeant James McCann even flew out to Katsubu, Alaska, to meet him, which for reference is a small city that's over a four-hour flight from Fairbanks. And Kenneth voluntarily provided his DNA because, quote, I volunteered because I wanted to help. Anyway, I can, you know?

Starting point is 00:22:09 Because if she's native, we can't have that happen to native people. His DNA didn't match, but he did come up later. And actually, in 2009, Kenneth Sister Karen told Alaska Troopers that her brother confessed to Sophie's murder. So obviously, this was a shocking turn. When Kenneth was re-interviewed regarding his sister Karen's comments, they asked him, do you remember telling Karen at any point that you had killed Sophie Sergi? And Kenneth responded with, nope, never. He was then asked, you never said that to her? And he replied,

Starting point is 00:22:48 I remember we were watching something on cold cases in Alaska and it was some kind of like show on TV. I told her I was a suspect in Sophie's. I was a suspect in that one at UAF. So Kenneth is claiming that he never told Karen that he was guilty just that he was questioned. But sadly, his sister passed away in 2018, so her statements weren't looked into further after this, since as we said, Kenneth's DNA did not match and he denied it.

Starting point is 00:23:17 I mean, what can you really do at that point? Your DNA is now the crime scene. You're saying you didn't do it? I think it's very interesting that Karen said this. This feels like a game of telephone sort of. Well, yeah, but it's like, I mean, it's pretty serious to tell police that your brother confessed to a murder. I don't know, it's just weird.

Starting point is 00:23:34 Yeah, it's definitely strange, especially, you know, just given, like what we said, the DNA wasn't there and the fact that, you know, he's claiming that that conversation was different, like it just, it didn't go that that conversation was different, like it just didn't go down that way. Right. So what's the truth?

Starting point is 00:23:48 Exactly. So anyway, a few years after this interview in May of 2014, Kenneth was indicted from manslaughter, assault in the first degree, and a few other charges regarding an incident from a month prior when he attacked numerous individuals at the Panhandle Bar and Anchorage, Alaska. So he broke someone's jaw after punching them, and the manslaughter charge came from punching a man named Daniel Stewart, who then hit his head on the sidewalk and died three days later from his injuries. and he punched many other people as well, so this was a very aggressive incident.

Starting point is 00:24:26 Right, so Kenneth had a lengthy criminal record, including, by the way, crimes against women, and he was just two years younger than Sophie and was allegedly seen in the area. But he wasn't believed to have been the one behind her death. And you remember the first guy that Heath mentioned just a few minutes ago, Nicholas Dazer, while his roommate and best friend proved to be a very important figure in this investigation. And that man's name is Stephen Downs. Now although Stephen had been mentioned by various people in different interviews over the years, i.e. his girlfriend at the time, but not really in an incriminating way which will

Starting point is 00:25:10 discuss, he had been questioned back in 1993. In 1993, Stephen Downs lived on the third floor of Bartlett Hall, but he was seen on the second floor, the floor Sophie was murdered on, that fateful night. He was an 18-year-old freshman at this time and had primarily stayed on the fourth floor with his girlfriend, who was having a bit of a party on the night of April 25, 1993. Stephen was known to own various weapons, including a knife and a gun. And when he was interviewed in 1993, he denied having any involvement in Sophie's murder, and that was that.

Starting point is 00:25:52 And we have to remember, like I mentioned earlier, they didn't have the DNA technology at the time to take a sample from him and test it against the DNA that they had. So they kind of just took his word for it and Stephen Downs was not considered a suspect. And let me clear this whole thing up. So basically, you know, how I said that Kenneth's DNA was eventually tested. So it's because Kenneth was actually a potential person of interest.

Starting point is 00:26:19 So he was on the radar, whereas Stephen was just one of the many students that they questioned in 1993. So Stephen was just one of the many students that they questioned in 1993. So Stephen was never, you know, in those days considered a person of interest. He was just another guy that lived in Bartlett Hall and was questioned. Right. And Kenneth's DNA wasn't tested until later on, correct?

Starting point is 00:26:39 Yeah. Yeah. So although he was questioned in 93, his questioning carried on until 2009 when his sister said, Hey, he told me he murdered Sophie. So he was a part of the investigation, you know, for the long haul. Right. So the years continue to pass on with no real suspects in Sophie's case. Cold case investigators continue to remind the public about Sophie's case, encouraging

Starting point is 00:27:05 anyone who was at Bartlett Hall that night to contact them, because any piece of information could be relevant. As tips continued to trickle in, investigators checked them out, but still, nothing. Then, in 2015, the Cold-case unit was defundunded and Sophie's case really went cold because now they don't have hardly any resources. But thanks to the advances made in DNA technology, a match was made in 2018. So on Friday, February 15, 2019, nearly 26 years after Sophie's murder. 44-year-old Stephen Downs was arrested at his home in Auburn, Maine for the first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault of 20-year-old Sophie Sarge.

Starting point is 00:27:58 Alaska State Police Colonel Barry Wilson had this to say, quote, through their dogged persistence, advances in technology, and the spirit of cooperation exhibited by each agency that touched this case, justice for Sophie is finally within reach. While Interest doesn't bring Sophie back, we are relieved to provide this closure. This case has haunted and frustrated Sophie's family and friends, the family and friends the investigators

Starting point is 00:28:25 in beyond. However, we did it. Investigators never gave up on Sophie. So since investigators didn't have Steven's DNA, you know, from back in the day when they barely questioned him, it was found a whole other way. And that's where familial DNA comes in. Familial DNA, oh my god, that's hard to say. Familial DNA has really changed the whole game. As I'm sure you guys know, and actually at the time that this was unraveling in 2018,

Starting point is 00:28:57 this is the same time that the Golden State Killer was found also through familial DNA. And don't you just love to see old shit heads get taken down who thought that they got away with murder? Oh yes, we love that. We love that. So, you know, this is causing countless breakthroughs in murder cases, and that is exactly what happened here.

Starting point is 00:29:17 As we know, DNA samples were taken from Sophie's body, including semen. And these DNA samples were tested back in the late 1990s and early 2000s for any matches in the Kodis National Database, but no matches came in. However, in 2018, when Alaska State Trooper investigator Randy McFarron was assigned to Sophie's case, he contacted a lab that uses genealogical testing to see if they could identify a potential suspect in her case. And with that, this company used GED match. I think it's GED or JED match.

Starting point is 00:29:55 What do you think that is? I think that's JED match. JED? I don't know which one it is, guys. Sorry. But I do know that it is a public database. They found, quote, five promising matches, two of which were second cousins or closer to the suspect, and three of which were third

Starting point is 00:30:12 cousins or closer to the suspect. And with the intense process of elimination, they narrowed it down to Stephen Downs' aunt. There was only one possible male relative that it could be, and it was him. God, I love how this whole thing works. I loved it through some sort of family member. They're able to match the DNA to a complete piece of shit. This is a reminder for all of us to use ancestry or 23 in me or any of those because we could help.

Starting point is 00:30:47 Yeah, true. Seriously. And if Steven's aunt had never used any of those sites. Yes, I was just going to say that. Like, we would still probably not know. Exactly. So this really was huge. Yeah, absolutely insane. So Steven Downs' aunt had actually uploaded her DNA into an online genealogy database, and once a match was uncovered, and Steven was connected,

Starting point is 00:31:14 investigators obtained a sample of his DNA, and executed a search warrant at his Auburn main home, which only proved to match the DNA found at the scene further. And remember, as awful as it is to say, the semen was found inside of Sophie. And based on the crime scene, police felt confident that the same person murdered her, because it didn't appear that she stood up between the time of the rape and her murder. Right, which makes sense, so they put it a little more graphically in the trial, but that's basically what they've been. Essentially, the semen stayed inside of her body, which was how investigators were able to get that DNA.

Starting point is 00:31:52 I actually, I will just say, I think the, I think it was the prosecutor who had said, dead girls don't stand up. Yeah, and that's put very bluntly and kind of graphic. Which is why I didn't want to say it, but I just decided I just would. So that is what she said. And that just really very bluntly and kind of graphic. Which is why I didn't want to say it, but I just decided I just would. So that is what she said. And that just really goes to show you this is a one person attack.

Starting point is 00:32:11 And this is who they have. So let's talk a little bit about Stephen Downs. Stephen Downs was born and raised in Auburn, Maine with his parents and sister. But he moved to Alaska where he attended the University of Fairbanks between 1992 to 1996. Then from 1998 to 2003, he lived in Tucson, Arizona. By 2018, he was back in Auburn, Maine, living in a home that he purchased for around $196,000, and he had not been arrested for any crimes, which is why his DNA didn't even come up in COodas. Two days before his arrest, Steven was interviewed by Maine State Police, and he explained

Starting point is 00:32:51 that he remembered that a young woman was murdered during his time at college, but that he had never been in contact with her. He then added, quote, I remember the pictures. It's terrible. Poor girl. Oh, F.U. Yeah, fuck you, dude. So up until 2016, Stephen Downs had been working as a nurse at the Harris House in Livermore Falls, Maine, which is an intermediate care facility for patients with intellectual disabilities. But in April of 2016, he was fired for a, quote, totality of substandard performance.

Starting point is 00:33:26 And this, you know, indicates poor work, but you can only wonder if there was more behind this decision. Well, he, it came out that Stephen had, quote, made statements to a co-worker that made the individual uncomfortable in January of 2016. And we know that this, uh this co-worker was a female. Then two months later, another female co-worker reported Stephen, and the details available are as follows. Quote, complained that one evening, Mr. Downs made her uncomfortable through his words and

Starting point is 00:34:02 actions while discussing a resident care matter. Mr. Downs disputes that his conduct was inappropriate, so he basically denied that he was inappropriate, but I'm sure if two women are like this guy made me uncomfortable, you probably did. So he was also accused of mishandling medications, which is a pretty big deal. In September of 2016, so after he was fired, in order to keep his nursing license, he was to follow these disciplinary terms. A warning and a requirement that he successfully complete a course in professional boundaries, pre-approved by the board's executive director, within two months of the execution of the consent

Starting point is 00:34:44 agreement. For Sophie's trial, which finally took place in early January of 2022, so literally last month, 47-year-old Stephen Downs was extra-dited to Alaska. Throughout said trial, jurors heard from many different people who were at Bartlett Hall on the night of Sophie's murder. Now Stephen Downs himself did not testify, but many did on his behalf, stating good and bad things about him alike. During the trial, a woman named Catherine de Schweinitz Lee discussed the night of April

Starting point is 00:35:20 25th and testified since she was Stephen Down's girlfriend at the time. She said that on that evening, she, Stephen and some friends of hers were in her fourth floor room in Bartlett Hall on the UAF campus just kind of hanging out, drinking and watching movies on the VCR, what she called somewhat of a party. Although she doesn't remember much from that evening, she stated that she knows that Stephen, his roommate Nick and some others were going in and out of her dorm throughout the evening, meaning that Stephen wasn't in her room the entire night. And she remembered after all this time that he wasn't in the room, because she remembers

Starting point is 00:35:59 that was the night that a young man named Bill Wilson tried to kiss her, and she knew that Stephen wasn't in the room for that. And that makes sense because I know a lot of people remember certain events when something, of course, memorable happened at that time. So she remembers this guy tried to kiss me and I know Steven wasn't in the room for that. Right. Because she was actually probably looking around to make sure that Steven wasn't in the room after this incident happened.

Starting point is 00:36:23 Right. But I don't think she wanted to kiss this man. Right, I mean, that's still not the point. She was probably like, where's my boyfriend? Well, exactly totally. So anyway, she also continued even back in a 2009 interview with investigators that Stephen Downes did indeed own a gun. And she knew this because she had gone target shooting in the spring of 1993 with

Starting point is 00:36:45 him around the time of Sophie's murder. She also remembered it being a quote, little 22 pistol that was either a handgun or a revolver and that appeared to be old and beat up. She and Stephen continued to date for three more years, but they eventually broke up. And other people that knew Stephen back in 1993 testified that they never remembered him to be a violent guy, just that they remember good times with him. A woman testified that she tried to date Stephen back in the fall of 1992, so approximately six months before Sophie's murder and before he began dating Catherine, but that he wasn't interested in a relationship, so they remained friends.

Starting point is 00:37:30 All these friends remembered Stephen owning a gun and keeping a large, fixed blade hunting knife on his desk, and one person even had a photo of him holding it, so that's how they remembered, oh yeah, he always had that knife with him kind of thing. But of course, I mean owning a knife and a gun, especially around the wilderness of Alaska, isn't rare or suspicious, but it's worth noting, especially because he had a 22 caliber gun, and that is what was used on Sophie. And speaking of the gun, let's discuss what the firearms expert said during the trial. A forensic scientist named Deborah Gillis explained that the bullet found at the crime scene was

Starting point is 00:38:09 extremely damaged and too mangled to determine if it matched Stephen's own gun. She said the bullet was definitely a 22 caliber, but that quote, So the terminal ballistic condition is that it is compressed longitudinally so it's compressed from nose to base, so it's a nose first impact. Not to get graphic here, but investigators believe that Sophie was being pushed against the tile wall of the bathtub room when she was shot in the back of the head. And the bullet went through her head and exited out her forehead, yet didn't break the skin, which is called a shoring wound. So with that, the bullet was smashed. This bullet was compared to 322 caliber guns that were found at Steven's home in Maine

Starting point is 00:38:57 in 2019. She concluded by saying it was possible for the bullet to be from any one of those three guns, but that she couldn't be sure which if any. And you guys are probably wondering if there were any other suspects that were talked to during this trial. Well, as a part of Stephen's defense, 16 alternative suspects to be exact were questioned during this trial. That's a lot.

Starting point is 00:39:21 Exactly, and one of them being Kenneth Motto, who appeared in court via video conference to explain that he was innocent. So let's get into the DNA match. Here's what was discussed in trial. Now, it was clear that some of the blood found at the scene was not so fees due to the XY chromosomes, and then there was the seam in which is an obvious one. According to a DNA expert, identifying a DNA profile on a single person comes down to a one-entrillion and quadrillion matches, so it's pretty intense.

Starting point is 00:39:57 And she was the one to decipher the DNA in this case alongside Hade Hamilton and Kristen Denning. And by the way, the DNA analyst was Ambrami Chitambaram. I think that's how you say their name, so thank you to them. She added that, unless a person has an identical twin, which Stephen did not, it is very unlikely she specified zero likelihood that someone else would match that profile. She also stated, quote, it's like looking at a blueprint.

Starting point is 00:40:27 It gives a snapshot of how to identify a person at a molecular level. During closing arguments, prosecutor Jenna Gruenstein wanted the jurors to remember that Steven's DNA was found at the scene from the semen sample, and that all alternative suspects raised by the defense against 16 people were ruled out by their DNA not being found at the scene. So this is extremely conclusive here.

Starting point is 00:40:55 I would say, because Stephen never confessed, it's unclear how he and Sophie would have come into contact. It's also unclear what Sophie did the previous evening, which was Saturday night. Maybe she had gone to a party or hung out in the dorms and had met Stephen that way, or maybe they had met for the first time just before Sophie was killed. And you kind of have to wonder if when she was going out for a cigarette she went to that area, didn't he say it was in the bathroom? Yeah, so Noah said, of course,

Starting point is 00:41:26 that no fault of Noah's, he had suggested she go to the bathroom to where the vent was to smoke by the vent instead of going outside. So maybe Steven was by the bathrooms and he saw her go inside and he followed her in. Yeah, that's definitely possible. But to me, also thinking about the severity of the crime, like, he used a stun gun, a knife and a gun. So he was either out there on the prowl, looking for someone to sexually assault, because why would you be carrying all those weapons on your person? That's such a good point. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:42:01 Like, it seems to me, like he was out there, like either he had specifically gone after Sophie herself or he was specifically going after just any female student. It's just weird because it's not like this happened at a party where Steven would have seen her and then, you know, prepared for that. Like what are the chances that he would have planned for this to happen knowing she was going to leave at midnight or 1 a.m. to go of a cigarette? Like it doesn't make sense. Right, so he must have just been on the prowl at that point in time.

Starting point is 00:42:31 But that is a really good point that he would have had to have had all of these weapons on him unless he, you know, hit her with a blunt object or whatever knocked her out and then came back. But I don't know. This is a really good point. Well, this is the hardest part about this whole story is the fact that Steven's a dickhead and he's not gonna tell anybody what he actually did.

Starting point is 00:42:54 So all we can go off of his just pure speculation of how they may have come into contact in some way. Right, and it's kind of hard to wrap your head around an actual theory, but somehow it did happen. Exactly. So let's get back to the trial. Just a week before we're recording this episode, the jury deliberated.

Starting point is 00:43:16 And after discussing the case for 20 hours over the course of four days, on February 10, 2022, a jury of nine women and three men found Stephen Down's guilty of sexual assault in the first degree, as well as guilty of murder in the first degree. And sentencing is scheduled for this September of 2022. After the deliberation, so just a few days ago from when we're recording, a visual was held in Sophie's honor in Fairbanks, Alaska, where many community members attended. The program Specialist Manager of Janelle, of the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center stated, Sophie's death and life shaped the work of so many advocates here in Fairbanks and across our state that we could not let justice for her and

Starting point is 00:44:05 her family go unmarked today. We felt that we wanted to show our support because her family is so far away and many were not able to be here today and to let them know that she was never forgotten. Just a couple months after Sophie's murder, the University of Fairbanks campus vowed to become a safer place for everyone. New phones were installed in every dorm room, tighter security was organized, new staff members were hired to check student IDs, as people entered the lobby at night, and improved lighting on campus grounds and shuttles between buses and buildings were worked on. All of these changes cost more than $100,000, but it was worth it. Students became more aware of dangers and safety talks were given, but sadly,

Starting point is 00:44:56 this didn't stop the horrific murder of Sophie Sergi. After Stephen Downs was found guilty, Sophie's older brother Alexey stated that he was relieved and, quote, �With the DNA, I'm pretty sure it's the right guy. Nowadays, DNA won't lie to you. My religion, I'm Russian Orthodox, you're supposed to pray for all your enemies. Forgive them for everything. I forgave him for what he did, but I will never forget.

Starting point is 00:45:27 Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I'm so glad that this case finally saw a resolution, but it's just like everybody else is saying it's not gonna bring Sophie back and it's it's really sad that this even happened because she was murdered so horrifically and it took so long for justice to be served, but I'm glad they've got the right guy behind bars And I'm also really happy to hear that this campus has you know really worked on their security and their safety for students because That's a very

Starting point is 00:46:05 important piece of this story. Oh, absolutely. I mean, all campuses should be safe and students should feel safe just going to the bathroom, whether you're going to take a bath, take a shower, or smoke a freaking cigarette. So, just a very devastating case. But thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for sharing our show in general. We love you guys so much.

Starting point is 00:46:22 It means the world that you support our show and listen to Going West. And if you guys feel like you want to leave us a nice review, please do so. We really love that it helps us move up in the charts. If you're loving going west, you can help us out by doing that. That would be amazing. Yes, and by helping us move up on the charts or just get more noticed, it actually helps these cases, you know, come to light more. It helps them get to more ears, so it's really important overall. So thank you guys so much for doing everything you do for us and we love you. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you

Going West: True Crime - Sophie Sergie // 175

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