Pairs of bodies keep turning up along bike trails in Alaska’s largest city. Two double homicides in six months. One in the past two weeks.
Community members have expressed concern that a serial killer is targeting couples in Anchorage. However, the city’s police appear to be reluctant to release information publicly.
Anchorage police spokesperson Renee Oistad told The Huffington Post the department would not comment on the “open and active cases.”
When pressed on what the police was doing to protect citizens, she replied, “We are not going to release, to the media, what we’re doing in our investigation(s), as that is the same thing as alerting potential suspects as to the steps we’re taking.”
The unsolved double homicide cases bear striking similarities, in that they all occurred in an isolated area near a popular bike trail.
The first case was reported to detectives on January 28, when a dog walker found the body of 19-year-old Selena Annette Mullenax at Point Woronzof, a scenic Anchorage overlook surrounded by a bike trail. Authorities searching the area discovered a second victim, 20-year-old Foriegnne “Onie” Aubert-Morissette, who was still alive but pronounced dead after transport to a local hospital.
Morissette attended Madison West High School in Wisconsin, according to his Facebook page. Alaska Native News reported he was arrested last year on charges of assault, robbery, theft and weapons misconduct. The case had yet to go to trial.
Mullenax reportedly had five siblings and was the mother of a two-year-old child.
Her parents, Emil and Rose Mullenax, told Alaska Dispatch News she had a boyfriend and was working on her GED.
“She was always smiling, happy, bubbly, kind of a peacemaker,” Rose Mullenax said. “If her brothers were squabbling, sometimes she’d get between them.”
On July 3, less than six months after the slaying of Morissette and Mullenax, a passerby discovered the bodies of 20-year-old Brianna Foisy and 41-year-old Jason Netter Sr. along the Ship Creek Trail, another Anchorage bike path.
Foisy was reportedly homeless, and friends told Anchorage’s KTUU‑TV that she battled drug addiction.
“She just wasn’t on the right path,” Dani Elle-Ponte told the news station. “Kids these days are doing things they shouldn’t be doing, and there’s a lot of problems with that out here. For a while there, I think she just felt a little hopeless but I know she was trying.”
Netter, a father of two, had an extensive criminal history that included a felony conviction for drugs, according to Alaska Dispatch News. No other details have been released about him.
The most recent unsolved double-homicide occurred on August 28. Investigators were called to the Valley of the Moon Park shortly before 2 a.m. after the body of a man was found along a bike path. Responding officers found the body of a second victim nearby. They have been identified as 25-year-old Bryant Dehusson and 34-year-old Kevin Schuyler Turner.
The Alaska Dispatch News reported that DeHusson was a well-known figure in local environmental and social activism circles. Friends told the newspaper that DeHusson, who went by the name “Brie,” identified as non-binary or “two-spirit” gender.
“[DeHusson] cared deeply about nature and life,” local activist Carl Wassilie told the Alaska Dispatch News.
Turner’s brother, Billy Turner, created a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for his sibling’s funeral.
“Our family is in shock and mourning of our loss,” he wrote. “Kevin had a mental illness that did not hold him back from having a fun and a loving life full of friends and family that he will be remembered by.”
Authorities have yet to reveal how any of the victims died, and they will not confirm whether they knew each other. However, Oistad did confirm to HuffPost that the FBI is assisting Anchorage police in the investigation.
While police will not comment on the possibility of a connection in any of the cases, they are urging residents to “be extra vigilant.”
“Criminal activity often increases late at night and during early morning hours,” reads a police department advisory issued late last month. “[We want] to remind our citizens to be cautious when they are out during these hours, especially if they are in isolated areas like our parks, bike trails or unoccupied streets. If you plan to be out late at night, make sure you travel with several friends and not alone.”
That warning has prompted some community members to speculate online and in social media. This, combined with the fact that murder has been running at a record pace in Anchorage with 25 slayings this year, has residents on edge.
“I was a lot more comfortable before these things started happening and that includes what happened at Ship Creek and what happened here recently and at Point Woronzof,” Teresa Arnold told Anchorage’s KTVA 11 News of the three double homicides. “You put all those things together, and it becomes pretty alarming and shocking.”
Jennifer Hazen, a longtime resident who lives near Valley of the Moon Park, described the rash of homicides to The Associated Press as “terrifying.”
John McCleary, the former superintendent for the Anchorage Parks & Recreation Department, said he has never seen anything like it.
“This is ... so abnormal,” McCleary told the AP. “It doesn’t seem like I’m in the same city.”
Fear also apparently has some wanting to take justice into their own hands.
“Everyone is concerned,” Samuel Moore, president of the North Star Community Council told KTUU‑TV. “A lot of the community wants to organize a community watch with armed citizens. I’m worried about that.”
The mayor’s office is planning a neighborhood meeting in the coming weeks to address concerns.
For now, the question remains: Is there a serial killer targeting people in Anchorage?
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