Hunted on Ice: The Search for Alaskan Serial Killer Robert Hansen
Read Hunted on Ice: The Search for Alaskan Serial Killer Robert Hansen Online
Authors: Reagan Martin
Absolute Crime Presents:
Hunted On Ice
The Search for Alaskan Serial Killer Robert Hansen
By
Reagan Martin
Absolute Crime Books
© 2013. All Rights Reserved.
Cover Image © WimL - Fotolia.com
Table of Contents
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Prologue
In 1867, when the United States purchased the territory of Alaska from the Russians at a cost of .02 cents an acre totaling 7.2 million dollars, many people wondered why they would even want it.
Despite the fact that it is the largest state in America, measuring twice the size of Texas, most people picture Alaska as little more than a vast and frozen wilderness. A desolate wasteland teeming with an array of wild animals such as grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes and moose. At the time of its acquisition, most Americans viewed it as a major waste of money.
Of course, that was before the discovery of oil. Throughout history, many people knew the state was loaded with oil. So much oil, in fact, that in some places it seeped above the ground and pooled on the surface.
In the late 1800’s, minor exploration was being done, but no huge finds were discovered. It wasn’t until after 1958, when Alaska gained statehood, that huge oil and gas reserves were discovered there in astounding abundance. But at the time there was little need for the precious fossil fuel, and no way to transport it from Alaska to the lower 48 states.
But in 1973, when the price of oil skyrocketed and the United States was plunged into what became known as the ‘oil crisis’, drilling in Alaska finally became economically feasible. Almost immediately, construction was begun on an 800-mile pipeline to be used for transporting oil from the northern part of the state to Valdez, Alaska.
Such a major construction project required massive amounts of workers, and all types of people began to flood into the state. Not just pipeline workers, but literally anyone who believed they might make a quick buck off this new industry themselves.
Some were legitimate business people, opening hotels and motels, restaurants, stores, and clubs; establishments needed to cater to the growing demand. But along with these honest folks, Alaska had its fair share of shady characters arriving as well. Everyone from prostitutes and pimps, to con men and thieves poured into the state, hoping to make some quick and lucrative cash.
Most of them were transient types, making their riches quickly, and then disappearing as fast as they had come. They had no ties to the area, no family, no friends, no one to wonder and worry about where they might be. It was not unusual for them to be here one day, and gone the next.
It was for just this reason that no one gave it a second thought when young prostitutes, and topless dancers, began vanishing around the city in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Most people, including law enforcement, just assumed they had moved on to more lucrative endeavors.
Chapter One
Megan Emerick was a pretty 17-year-old girl, with chestnut brown hair, hazel eyes, and a spray of freckles across her cheeks. In the summer of 1973, Megan wasn’t a prostitute or a topless dancer, but only a student at the Seward Skill Center in Seward, Alaska. She had grown up in the town, which was situated in the southern part of the state on the Kenai Peninsula.
On July 7
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Megan visited the school’s laundry room to wash some clothes, and spoke to several other students who were there. After a while she bid them farewell and left the building. It was the last time anyone would see Megan again.
Megan’s roommate was not initially concerned when she didn’t come home that night, but as the days progressed and she realized Megan had left all of her possessions, including her identification, behind, she finally contacted the police.
Although an investigation was begun, there was no sign of Megan, and no indication of foul play. The teen was simply gone, and police had no clues as to what had happened to her.
Almost exactly two years later, on July 5, 1975, 22-year-old Mary Thill disappeared as well. Mary’s husband was away, working on the pipeline, while Mary remained in Seward living on Lower Point Road. She was last seen near the waterfall in town around 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon.
Mary’s husband rushed back to Seward when he learned of her disappearance and helped police search for her. But no trace of Mary was ever found, and she remains missing to this day.
Police viewed the Emerick and Thill disappearances as isolated and separate incidents. Each case was investigated and worked, but as no new leads were discovered, and new cases came up, they were eventually delegated to the cold case files.
As the 1970’s moved into the 1980’s, Anchorage police noted an increase in the number of missing person’s reports, the majority of which were for prostitutes and topless dancers. Although questions were asked, these cases were not vigorously investigated.
Police knew that ever since the pipeline had gone in and the oil industry boomed, women had been coming to the area on a daily basis. Many of the prostitutes actually worked a swing loop beginning in California, and moving up the coast to Oregon, Washington, and eventually Alaska. In each location they would stay a short time, and then move on.
Their transient lifestyles made it difficult for authorities to determine if they truly had disappeared, or simply moved on. On several occasions, police had wasted both time and energy investigating a missing persons’ report, only to find the girl working the streets in another city.
It was frustrating for officers, who had neither the manpower, nor the resources to investigate all the disappearances that were reported to them. As a result, unless a body showed up, or there were clear signs of foul play involved, a missing prostitute or topless dancer was out of luck. Their name would be taken, a few inquiries made, and then the case would be shelved.
In late June of 1980, 24-year-old Roxanne Easlund, a known prostitute, was reported missing by her family. She was last seen near 4
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Avenue, an area in downtown Anchorage known for its strip clubs and prostitutes, on June 28, 1980. Police took a missing persons report, and asked a few questions, but there was no indication of foul play, and the case went nowhere.
One month later, on July 21, 1980, construction workers at a job site on Eklutna Road near the Knik River made a grisly discovery. Buried in a shallow grave, near a power line, they found a jumble of decomposed and skeletonized bones.
Anchorage police cordoned off the scene and began delicately excavating the grave, placing each bone carefully within a waiting body bag. The partial remains appeared to be that of a young female, but they were badly decomposed, and what nature hadn’t devoured from the body, wild animals had.
Much of the body was missing, but the skull was present, visible remnants of long, reddish-brown hair still clinging to it, and the teeth were intact. Also recovered from the grave were several pieces of jewelry, including a wristwatch, with the time stopped at a little after 11:00, a ring, an earring, a cuff bracelet and a necklace. Most of the jewelry appeared to be handmade, and possibly Native American since most of it contained turquoise stones.
Police were certain this was not the missing Roxanne Easlund. This body appeared to have been buried for a long time, a fact that the medical examiner’s findings confirmed. The remains belonged to a young female in her late teens or early twenties, who was small in stature, standing only 4’11” tall, and had probably been dead about a year. The medical examiner found injuries consistent with a stabbing, and attributed her death to that.
Authorities went through their stack of missing persons’ reports, and were surprised to find that none of them matched this description. They had no idea who the girl might be and turned to the public for help in identifying her. Using her skull, they created a facial reconstruction of what she might have looked like in life and released it to the media.
But no one came forward to identify the dead girl, who police had quickly dubbed ‘Eklutna Annie’, and with no leads to follow the case soon went cold.
In July of that same year, 23-year-old Joanne Messina went missing from the town of Seward. She was last seen leaving her job at a cannery, accompanied by her dog. Her body would be discovered later that fall, secreted within a moldy sleeping bag, in another shallow grave not far from where Eklutna Annie was found.
Joanne too was badly decomposed, and animals had carried off a good portion of her body. It was determined that she died from a .22 caliber bullet wound, but there were few other clues to go on, and just like Eklutna Annie, Joanne Messina’s case soon went cold.
Only two months after Joanne vanished, Lisa Futrell also disappeared. Lisa differed from the other girls because of her age. While those who vanished earlier had all been young, in their late teens or early twenties, Lisa might be considered middle aged at 41. Still, her background was similar enough to the other girls that law enforcement could not discount her.
In early 1981, 22-year-old Andrea Altiery, a topless dancer who worked on 4
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Avenue, also disappeared. Andrea was a tough girl, who was last seen in Anchorage, wearing blue jeans, a winter coat, and her custom made fish necklace. This piece of jewelry was a priceless treasure to Andrea, and she was rarely seen without it. It was a small sterling silver charm, crafted into the shape of a fish, and always dangling from her neck.
On November 17, 1981, 24-year-old Sherry Morrow, a dancer at the Wild Cherry Bar in downtown Anchorage, told her friends that she was going to meet a man who had offered her $300 to pose for nude photos. Sherry never returned home, and friends quickly reported her missing to the police.
Six months later, Sue Luna, a tiny 23-year-old Asian girl who had come to Alaska from Washington State, disappeared after telling friends that she was meeting a man at a downtown restaurant around noon. She walked off to keep her appointment, and that was the last time Sue Luna was ever heard from again.
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If police were concerned about all these missing girls, they certainly never went public with it. Officials were aware that there were similarities among all the disappearances, but it was just such similarities that made the cases difficult to investigate. Was there foul play involved, or had the women just left on their own?
That question was impossible to answer until something showed up to point them in the right direction. Either the girl would eventually turn up in another location, or a body needed to be found before police could investigate further. Law enforcement officials were frustrated with their lack of progress, and eager for any new developments. They waited anxiously for a break, and as they did so, more women continued to disappear.