Bethel woman sentenced in father’s heroin death

ANCHORAGE — A Bethel woman who fatally injected her father with heroin will spend up to two years in prison.

The District Attorney’s Office announced Friday that 35-year-old Shannon Cooke was sentenced to six years in prison with four suspended and three years of probation.

Prosecutors say 56-year-old Thomas Tungwenuk had never used heroin before he asked his daughter to inject him in September 2014. Cooke had been living with her father in Anchorage.

Cooke called 911 after her father began sweating and experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. He later died at a hospital and Cooke told investigators that she’d injected him with the drug.

Police found 1.5 grams of heroin in Cooke’s possession.

Cooke pleaded guilty in April to criminally negligent homicide and misconduct involving a controlled substance.

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