Alaska troopers announce cold-case murder arrest

Alaska troopers announce cold-case murder arrest

Woman was found dead in University of Alaska Fairbanks bathtub in 1993.

ANCHORAGE — A suspect has been arrested in Maine in connection with the sexual assault and murder of a 20-year-old woman whose body was found in a dorm bathtub at the University of Alaska Fairbanks nearly 26 years ago, Alaska State Troopers said Friday.

Steven Downs of Auburn, Maine, was arrested in Auburn on Friday on charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault in the April 1993 death of Sophie Sergie of Pitkas Point, troopers said.

New DNA technology led to Downs, according to troopers. The technology, called genetic genealogy testing, was also used to make an arrest last year in the Golden State Killer case in California. Former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo faces 13 rape-related charges and 13 murder counts stemming from crimes in the 1970s and 1980s across six counties in the state.

Encouraged by the new investigative method, the Alaska Troopers’ Cold Case Unit (CCU) submitted the unknown DNA profile from Sophie’s case in July of 2018 to Parabon Nanolabs, a Virginia-based company which utilizes extracted DNA to perform the genetic genealogy testing.

Downs, 44, was a UAF student at the time of the killing and lived at the dorm where Sergie’s body was found, troopers said.

Sergie was a former UAF student, but she was not enrolled when she went to stay with a friend at the UAF dorm shortly before her death, according to charging documents. She was last seen alive when she left to smoke a cigarette and her friend suggested she smoke near exhaust vents in the women’s tub room to avoid the cold outside, the court papers said.

Janitors found Sergie’s body in a tub in a shower room at the dorm the afternoon of April 26, 1993. Charging documents say she was sexually assaulted, shot in the back of the head and stabbed numerous times.

Biological evidence was collected, but at the time, DNA technology was not in used in Alaska, according to the court papers. Investigators later developed a DNA profile to compare the DNA of possible suspects over the years, to no avail.

Downs will be extradited to Alaska, troopers said. Online court files do not list an attorney for Downs.


• This is an Associated Press report.


More in News

The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Encore docks in Juneau in October, 2022. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Ships in Port for the Week of May 28

Here’s what to expect this week.

File Photo
Police calls for Saturday, May 27

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Dozens of Juneau teachers, students and residents gather at the steps of the Alaska State Capitol on Jan. 23 in advocacy for an increase in the state’s flat funding via the base student allocation, which hasn’t increased sizeably since 2017 and has failed to keep pace with inflation during the past decade. A one-time funding increase was approved during this year’s legislative session. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire file photo)
What’s next for the most debated bills pending in the Legislature?

Education funding increase, “parental rights” and other proposals will resurface next year.

Emergency lights flash on top of a police car. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)
Police investigate assault in Lemon Creek area

“JPD does not believe there is any danger to the public at large.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. DeSantis has filed a declaration of candidacy for president, entering the 2024 race as Donald Trump’s top GOP rival (AP Photo / John Raoux)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launches 2024 GOP presidential campaign to challenge Trump

Decision revealed in FEC filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Police calls for Wednesday, May 23, 2023

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

A channel flows through the mud flats along the Seward Highway and Turnagain Arm in Alaska on Oct. 25, 2014. Authorities said, a 20-year-old man from Illinois who was walking Sunday evening, May 21, 2023, on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary, got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him.  (Bob Hallinen / Anchorage Daily News)
Illinois man gets stuck waist-deep in Alaska mud flats, drowns as tide comes in

“…It’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.”

Most Read