Alaskan Teen Snatched By Killer Cop? The Murder Of Sonya Ivanoff

In August 2003, 19-year-old Sonya Ivanoff left a friend’s house in Nome, Alaska. When she never made it back, her loved ones immediately knew something was wrong. Days later, Sonya’s body was discovered outside of town, and investigators began searching for answers. What followed would raise troubling questions about trust, accountability, and whether the person who took Sonya’s life had been hiding in plain sight all along. This episode is sponsored by: Quince: Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com/tckr http://quince.com/tckr for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Earnin: Download EarnIn on the App Store or Google Play. Hiya Health: receive 50% off your first order on any of their products. To claim this deal you must go to hiyahealth.com/TCKR http://hiyahealth.com/TCKR. This deal is not available on their regular website. Nutrafol: for a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit Nutrafol.com http://nutrafol.com and enter promo code KENDALLRAE. Warby Parker: our listeners can buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/TCKR http://WarbyParker.com/TCKR— and using our link helps support the show. #WarbyParker #ad Check out my foundation: Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/ Watch my documentaries: 530 Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjUWkmOjNLk Apartment 801: https://bit.ly/2RJ9XXr True Crime with Kendall Rae podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3rks84o Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jC66pr Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop https://kendallrae.shop/ Check out my other podcasts: Mile Higher (True Crime) @milehigherpod YouTube: https://bit.ly/2ROzJcw Instagram: http://instagram.com/milehigherpod The Sesh (Current events, a little true crime, pop culture, and commentary) https://bit.ly/3Mtoz4X @the_seshpodcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/3a9t6Xr *Follow My Social!* @KendallRaeOnyt Instagram: http://instagram.com/kendallraeonyt Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kar4NK True Crime TikTok: https://bit.ly/3VDbc77 Personal TikTok: https://bit.ly/41hmRKg REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://zfrmz.com/yg9cuiWjUe2QY3hSC2V0 Form for people directly related/close to the victim: https://zfrmz.com/HGu2hZso42aHxARt1i67 Join my discord to chat with other viewers about this video, it’s free! https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN C O N T A C T: For Business Inquiries - [email protected] Send me mail: Kendall Rae 8547 E Arapahoe Rd Ste J #233 Greenwood Village, CO 80112

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• 0:00Kendall Rae?

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• 0:44Kendall Rae?

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• 1:01Kendall Rae?

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• 1:47Kendall Rae?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if you're new to the show, then welcome. I'm so happy to have you here. And make sure to click Subscribe so that you never miss an upload from me. So you guys, today, we're going to be talking about a case that is truly so shocking. And that's mainly because of the... wildly ridiculous way that the investigation led to the most unlikely suspect. We're going to be going over the case of Sonya Ivanoff and her case is so deeply upsetting because it was so unnecessary. Her murder never could have been predicted by her friends and family.

• 2:31Kendall Rae?

  And there was just absolutely no point to it. There's no reason why she shouldn't be here with them today. She was a wonderful young woman with a lot of promise. And of course, I want to start out by talking about her. Sonya Ivanoff was born on April 13th, 1994 to her parents Maggie and Larry Ivanoff, and they lived in Unalukli, Alaska. Unfortunately, there isn't that much information out there about her younger years, but I will share what I was able to find. So she was the fourth child of six children in her family. And her and her older sister Christine were the only two girls out of all of them. And the town that they grew up in was a very small village in Norton Sound,

• 3:15Kendall Rae?

  which is on the western coast of Alaska. And not only is it in a remote area, but it has a population of just 700 people. And most of the community is native Alaskan. And Sonya was well known in the area mainly because of her very outgoing and bubbly, friendly type of personality. And people who knew her described her as goofy, as fun, and having a positive attitude pretty much all the time. But she wasn't just known because she was an extrovert. She was also a star athlete on the local basketball team, which made her prominent throughout Norton Sound. Then in 2002, Sonya graduated from high school and she moved to Nome, Alaska.

• 3:56Kendall Rae?

  Now, even though Nome's population in 2003 was about 3,554 people, it is considered a city in that area. And Sonya decided to move there for better job opportunities so that she could save money for college. And eventually, her goal was to move to Hilo, Hawaii. And I don't blame her. Beautiful place. And she was taking that goal very seriously. She first got to Nome, she started working at the administrative desk of a local hospital. And then shortly after that, she entered the Arctic Native Brotherhood pageant with the hope of earning some scholarship money for college. And this isn't what you would typically think of when you think of a pageant. Instead, it was really a celebration of the Native Alaskan heritage and something that Sonia was really proud of.

• 4:40Kendall Rae?

  So this was really an exciting time for Sonia in her life. I mean, she was prepping towards new goals, but she was also doing a bunch of new things in the meantime. And it got even better because just a couple of months after she arrived in Nome, her best friend, Timore, moved there too and started living with Sonia. The two of them were extremely close and they shared everything from makeup to clothes and even a bed together. And they both really settled into their new town very easily. They started to make friends very quickly, they were starting to save money. And since neither of them had a car, they were walking everywhere, which was something that they loved to do and also something that they felt safe doing.

• 5:23Kendall Rae?

  But unfortunately, everything changed for them on August 10th, 2003. That night, they went to a friend's house and according to Timore, it was a very chill night. They were hanging out. Sonia only had one beer, they were playing board games. And then a little bit before 1 a.m., Sonia and Timore decided it was time to call it a night. So Timore actually had work really early in the morning, so she decided to crash at a friend's house nearby. But Sonia wanted to go back home, so the two of them parted ways. And I thought this was really, really sweet, but they had this secret handshake and they would also say, peace out, pal. And they would do this whenever they left each other. And of course, they did that before walking away from each other that night.

• 6:07Kendall Rae?

  And Timore later said that it was raining that night, but that Sonia was happy because she loved the rain. And she actually watched Sonia happily jump into a puddle as she started to walk in the direction of their apartment. But in that moment, Timore had no idea that this would be the last time that she would see her best friend. Early the next morning, around 5:30 a.m. Timery went back to their apartment before she went to work. She just stopped by and she noticed that Sonia wasn't there. And even more strange, it seemed like her bed wasn't slept in. But she didn't get too concerned about it right away and she left for work. And also, you've got to keep in mind, this is 2003.

• 6:49Kendall Rae?

  It was practically a different world back then. Not everyone had cell phones, so she couldn't just easily call or text Sonia to see where she was. And sometimes the two of them would either call each other while at work to check in, you know, from whatever phone was available at work. But Sonia never called that day, which made her start to get even more worried. And then later that day, when she came home from work, Sonia still wasn't there. And stuff like her makeup bag and her hair products seemed untouched, which indicated that she hadn't been home at all. And that's when Timery started calling some of Sonia's friends and family, including her older sister Christina. But Christina and her husband weren't that worried right away.

• 7:33Kendall Rae?

  They figured that maybe Sonia just needed a little space, maybe a little space away from Timery for whatever reason. But that thought went away the next day because Sonia didn't show up for her shift at the hospital, which was incredibly unlike her. And so at that point, her loved ones went ahead and started just driving and walking around Nome looking for Sonia. Timery was so desperate for any information that she even called the Nome Police Department to see if Sonia had been arrested, but she hadn't been. And soon it seemed that everyone was coming up empty. So on August 12th, Timery went to the Nome Police Department to fill out a missing persons report. And according to her, and unfortunately, we hear this more times than we don't, it seems, but

• 8:15Kendall Rae?

  they did not take it very seriously and seemed to just kind of brush the whole situation off. Even Sonia's brother-in-law ended up going to the department that evening and he said he had the same experience. But the next day, Sonia missed another shift without calling in. So her employer also reported her missing and that seemed to get the police's attention a little bit more. So they, at that point, jumped right into action. Now, the Nome Police Department is incredibly small with only eight officers. So they requested help from the fire department and volunteers to search for Sonya, but they weren't out very long. At around 8:30 that evening, a volunteer firefighter was about three miles outside

• 8:57Kendall Rae?

  of Nome when he saw tire tracks going down a remote road and he followed them. And that is when he came across the body of Sonya Ivanoff, who was dead at just 19 years old. And the crime scene was rather strange. Sonya's body was hidden under some bushes and she was completely naked, except for one sock on her left foot. While she had bruises on her face and chest, the cause of death wasn't immediately obvious. So the Nome Police Department went ahead and called in the Alaska Bureau of Investigation to help process this scene. But here's the thing, the ABI's headquarters are in Anchorage, which is about 500 miles away from Nome. So they wouldn't be able to make it over there until the next day.

• 9:42Kendall Rae?

  So the police had to do their absolute best to preserve the crime scene until then, and they did a really good job. They covered every inch of it with tarps and the officers took shifts guarding the scene throughout the night. And luckily, all of this effort did pay off and the ABI was able to collect evidence when they arrived. And like I said, there were tire tracks on this remote road. And as investigators looked closer, they realized that there was a pool of blood next to Sonya's body and that the tires actually drove over. So that led them to believe that the car probably belonged to whoever killed her. And these tire tracks were very distinct. One tire was mismatched from the other three. They also found blue paint marks on high branches.

• 10:27Kendall Rae?

  And because of the placement, investigators believe that the car was most likely a blue truck or SUV. And after processing the scene, Sonya's body was flown to Anchorage for an autopsy. And that did end up providing investigators with a lot more answers.

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• 11:54Kendall Rae?

  They discovered that she had died from a single gunshot wound by a 22-caliber bullet fired at point-blank range to the back of her head. The wound had been hidden behind her beautiful, thick, dark hair, which is why investigators didn't notice it right away. The autopsy also revealed that there was no foreign DNA on her. There was nothing under her fingernails. And the rape kit showed that she hadn't been sexually assaulted, which obviously led investigators to believe that whoever did this really knew how to cover their tracks, knew what they were doing. And with such little forensic evidence at the scene, police weren't exactly sure where to start. And while all of this is happening, Sonya's friends and family are just absolutely reeling

• 12:38Kendall Rae?

  from such a sudden and shocking loss, trying to make sense of it all. The day that Sonya's body was found, Timery and another friend were out driving around looking for her. And they went to the hospital that Sonya worked at. And one of her coworkers told her to go to the police station. And as they were heading over there, she had high hopes that maybe they found Sonya. Maybe she was OK. But when she got to the station and... Learned the horrible truth. She was just absolutely devastated. I mean, there are no words. And then, of course, Sonya's family, they were just so heartbroken and so confused about what had happened and why.

• 13:23Kendall Rae?

  Her brother Jacob said that the only way he knew how to cope with it was to get outside and go hunting. And while he was there, he saw vibrant northern lights. And he later said it felt like Sonya was dancing over the world. And the love that her family had for her was so, so incredibly strong and so apparent, especially when it came to her funeral. Because, oh my God, this just really chokes me up. But her family was originally planning on doing a closed casket funeral because of the bruising on Sonya's face. But her older sister Christina knew how much Sonya cared about her appearance, so she decided to do her makeup.

• 14:08Kendall Rae?

  I cannot even imagine doing anyone's makeup, let alone your sister's, for their funeral. That is, oh God, one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever heard. One of the most admirable things I've ever heard. I mean, that must have just been beyond difficult. But also, I'm sure in some ways, it was an honor for her to do that for her. It just really shows how much Christina wanted to take care of Sonya. And tragically, the funeral service was also held in the same gym where Sonya played basketball just a couple of years before. And while her loved ones are trying their best to process this horrible loss, they

• 14:48Kendall Rae?

  were still trying to make sense of it all, wondering who could have possibly wanted to hurt Sonya and why. And not only were they trying to wrap their minds around all of that, but they were also a bit concerned right out the gate about how the case was being handled. Because a week after Sonya's body was discovered, Christina's husband, Tom, went to the police station and he put a photo of Sonya on the wall because he wanted to remind them of who they were working for. And get this, an officer actually yelled at him.

• 15:22Kendall Rae?

  yelled at a man who has just lost a loved one, who is just trying to simply hang a photo of them on the wall. And the reason for yelling at him? Because he was worried it would ruin the drywall. Okay, what? Fuck the drywall, who cares? But this experience did not stop Tom, and he continued to visit the police department every single morning until they got answers. And around this time, it seemed like there was a break in the case when investigators found a viable suspect. While talking to Sonia's friends and family, there was one name that just kept coming up. A man who went by the nickname Kunuk. Apparently, he was a friend of Sonia's who had romantic interest in her, but she didn't feel the same way.

• 16:06Kendall Rae?

  And Timery even told investigators that she believed Sonia once had bruises on her that were caused by Kunuk. And he was also known by the police because he had a history of domestic violence charges against the mother of his child. So investigators went over to his house, and that's where they found some very interesting things. Turns out, he had a blue truck. And not only that, it was a blue truck with mismatched tires, just like the car that was at the scene. And while they were searching the truck, they ended up finding a lot of blood. There were drops of blood on the floor of the car, on a tarp that was in the trunk of the car, and also on a tire and the wheel well. But it didn't stop there.

• 16:50Kendall Rae?

  Blood was also found on a pair of Kunuk sneakers and one of his rifles. And on top of all of that, he had scratches on his back. So based on all of this, you would think that Kunuk was Sonia's killer, and investigators were starting to think that as well. But he insisted right from the jump that he had nothing to do with it, and that he hadn't seen her in weeks. As for all that blood, he had an explanation for it. He said that he was out of town on a hunting trip on the night that Sonia disappeared. And he said that while he was out, he had either hit a rabbit or a porcupine with his car, and he ended up hitting it in its head to put it out of its misery, which is- How blood ended up on his shoes and his rifle.

• 17:35Kendall Rae?

  He also stated that those scratches on his back were from his ex-girlfriend. Now investigators, at first, they were not buying this at all. They were pretty confident that forensic testing was going to show that the blood was actually Sonya's, not a random animal. But shockingly, Koonak was telling the truth. All of that blood was confirmed to be animal blood. And investigators even went to the area and they were able to find the carcass of the porcupine. And as for the tire impressions that were found at the scene, turns out that they had nothing to do with the murder. A random couple had driven down the road after Sonya was murdered, and they had no idea that they had driven past her or that her blood was on their tires.

• 18:18Kendall Rae?

  So now that Koonak was cleared, investigators were back at square one. And at this point, NOME PD had two officers assigned to the case, Byron Redburn and Brian Wayavanna. But it really wasn't a good setup because they could really barely work together because they had completely opposite shifts, which makes no sense. Plus Officer Wayavanna felt like Officer Redburn wasn't really communicating anything that he was investigating, which is obviously not helpful. Now Officer Wayavanna was actually friends with Sonya's sister and brother-in-law, so he was very committed to solving the case. And he just felt like there wasn't enough movement happening in the case.

• 19:00Kendall Rae?

  So he decided to go through the case file again and see if there was anything that was missed. And thankfully, he did. It always just blows my mind when there are cases like this, where someone decides to take a second look at the case file and they find something huge. His second look led to a very significant piece of information being found, and it would actually break the case wide open. In the files, he found a witness report that it seemed no one had bothered to follow up with. It turns out that a local woman named Florence reported seeing Sonya the night that she disappeared. So Wayavanna went to talk to her and she- He had quite a story.

• 19:44Kendall Rae?

  A little before 1:30 a.m., Florence and her sister were sitting out on their porch having a cigarette when Sonia walked by their house. And Florence's sister actually knew Sonia, so they waved at each other as she passed them. And while Sonia kept walking down the street, Florence noticed that a car was driving slowly behind her. Then that car drove up ahead and cut Sonia off. The driver rolled their window down and started talking to her. And then after a few minutes, Sonia actually got into the passenger side of the car, and the two of them drove off. But the most shocking thing that Florence noticed that night was a decal on the car. And it wasn't just any decal. It was the Nome Police Department logo. And Florence knew that what she saw was important,

• 20:29Kendall Rae?

  and she contacted the police as soon as she learned that Sonia had been murdered. She said she even spoke to the chief of police and told him a lot of details, including what Sonia was wearing. Yet with all of that, nobody in the police department bothered to follow up with her about it. Now thankfully Florence is a smart, smart person, and she knew how important this information was. And she wasn't just going to sit back and wait for them to do something about it. They weren't going to interview her. She was going to interview herself. So she ended up videotaping herself talking about what she saw that night so that it could be properly documented, which is just so brilliant. Because now there is a timestamp on her story, right?

• 21:13Kendall Rae?

  She has documented herself saying it on a specific day. And it will show in the future that her story hasn't changed. It's really incredible that she thought to do this, but at the same time, it's painfully ridiculous that a witness had to handle their own statement because they cared more than the police did. But now that Officer Wayvanna was on the case and took that second look at the file, he was going to make sure that something was actually done about it. So he informs the police chief that this tip points this investigation right back at the Nome Police Department. So the ABI was called in and took over the case.

• 21:58Kendall Rae?

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• 22:42Kendall Rae?

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• 22:59Kendall Rae?

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• 23:44Kendall Rae?

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• 24:27Kendall Rae?

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• 25:04Speaker 03

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• 25:41Kendall Rae?

  They soon discovered that two officers were on duty that night. Stan Piscopoia and Matt Owens. And both of these men actually had a questionable history when it came to this case. Piscopoia was the one who took the report from Timmering and didn't take it seriously. And Matt Owens was the officer that yelled at Sonya's brother in law for putting her picture up at the police station because he didn't want to ruin the drywall. So the ABI requested that both officers come to Anchorage so that they could take a polygraph test. But the day that they were set to go, something very unexpected happened. That night. A sergeant on duty noticed that Nome Police Department's 321 Cruiser was missing. So he radioed the other officer on duty, which happened to be Matt Owens, and he didn't know where it was.

• 26:26Kendall Rae?

  And before long, everyone in the department was out looking for the Cruiser. But it actually didn't take long for it to be tracked down. Matt Owens radioed everyone to say that he had found the car in an isolated area called the Bessie Pits, which also happened to be pretty close to where Sonya's body was found. And before anyone could meet him there, he radioed in again, saying that shots were being fired at him. So of course, everyone jumps into action at this point and gets there as fast as they possibly can. But when they arrived, the scene was quiet and a gunman was nowhere to be found. Then Matt Owens just walked up to the scene and told officers that he had run into a nearby tundra to avoid being shot. And he didn't have any injuries, but he was very shaken up.

• 27:11Kendall Rae?

  And he said that he was so scared of leaving his son without a father that he was even second guessing if he should even be an officer still. And even though Matt Owens was okay, the 321 Cruiser was not. A rock had been thrown through the driver's side window, and on that seat, under the broken glass, was an envelope with a letter inside of it, almost like something out of a crime thriller. It was written by Sonya's killer, but it was bizarre, to say the least. It said, "Pigs, I hate cops. I hate every one of you." Sonya was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did not know her. As you can see, it was easy for me to take your pig car keys right there. It was not her fault. She thought I was a pig, and it just happened.

• 27:56Kendall Rae?

  She was just a person, and I just wanted to see if I could that night. Every one of you should be more careful. I watch every move. You leave me alone, and I will leave you alone. I will shoot you in the head if you get close. And in that envelope was Sonya's recreational ID card. Proof that whoever this was had something to do with her murder. But right away, this whole situation felt very off to investigators. They extensively searched the area by foot and by helicopter, and nothing was found. And then a few days later, investigators even conducted a reenactment of how Owens described the events, and they discovered that didn't make much sense.

• 28:40Kendall Rae?

  First off, there were many places where Owens could have taken cover instead of running off into the tundra. Also, the person recreated his supposed actions at the scene had a lot of dirt and scuff marks on his pants while Owens' uniform hadn't. It was pretty clean. They also realized that the cruiser would have had to back into the spot it was found in, which didn't make sense for someone to do if they were on the run with a stolen police car, right? So, pretty soon investigators began to believe that this was most likely staged to get him out of the polygraph in Anchorage and redirect the ABI from looking into known police officers.

• 29:21Kendall Rae?

  But that didn't work, and the ABI were more determined than ever to speak with Officer Pascua and Officer Owens. Now, this is no surprise, but Owens canceled his trip to Anchorage the next day, stating that he was too traumatized from the shooting and he needed to speak to a therapist. But Stan Pascua still made the trip out there and gave investigators his account of what happened the night that Sonya disappeared. He said that he and Owens had responded to a domestic violence call and that the perpetrator tried to attack them, so they apprehended him, brought him to the local jail, then Pascua stayed at the department to fill out a report while Owens went back on patrol. Pascua said that he was at the department from about 1:30 to 2:00 a.m., which the ABI was able to verify.

• 30:05Kendall Rae?

  And since Florence saw Sonya enter the police SUV around 1:30 a.m., that meant it couldn't have been him, which of course leaves Matt Owens as their only suspect. And of course, investigators start digging into His past a little bit more and they did learn some more about him. Turns out that Officer Owens had done some pretty awful things during his three years on the force. Apparently, it was pretty well known that during his shifts, he would have his friends drive around with him in his patrol car, which is absolutely not authorized. And the chief of police, I guess, warned him to stop, but that didn't change anything. He didn't stop, kept giving joy rides to his buddies.

• 30:45Kendall Rae?

  And it just gets worse because the ABI learned that Owens was also picking up women and having sex with them in his car. So this made them wonder if he had tried to make a move on Sonya and things got out of hand and he killed her to keep her quiet. So after they learned all of this, it was far beyond time to finally talk to Owens. So he was forced to go to Anchorage and do the interview and polygraph test that he had been avoiding. And the Alaska State Troopers were actually so worried that he might try to get out of it, that they had an agent go to Nome just to make sure he got on that plane. But of course, while sitting with the ABI, he tried to talk his way out of everything.

• 31:28Kendall Rae?

  He claimed that while, yes, he did have some of his buddies ride around in his patrol car with him, he never had sex with any women on duty. And as far as Sonya, he said he did know her because sometimes while he was on duty, he would have to bring people to the hospital and she worked there. But he completely denied having anything to do with her murder. Now, interestingly, he did bring up the letter that was found at the scene of the shootout to remind the ABI that Sonya's killer was someone who hated cops. Officer Owens really thought he was smart when doing that, right? He thought that he was playing chess when in reality, he was playing tic-tac-toe.

• 32:13Kendall Rae?

  And he wasn't good at it either. And as I'm sure you've probably guessed at this point, when he took the polygraph test, he failed it. No shock there, but even though the suspicion was, you know, strongly on Owens. At this point, after his interview especially, they didn't have enough yet to arrest him. So they had to let him go. Instead, he returned to Nome and the police department placed him on administrative leave. But the investigation was still ramping up and the ABI actually received some very significant information from Owens' ex-wife. She stated that one afternoon, he randomly called her up to say that he would have to

• 32:55Kendall Rae?

  drop their son off with her earlier than expected because he had been called into work to assist in looking for a missing girl. And this call took place before Sonia was even reported missing. So he shouldn't have even known about it. Big red flag there. And then another woman calls up investigators and tells them that Owens was asking her to leave Alaska with him. So they're like, oh shit, okay, before this guy can potentially flee, we need to issue an arrest warrant. And they did. And then finally, on October 25th, 2003, Matt Owens was charged with first degree murder. And while this was a big step forward, it of course, didn't mean the investigation

• 33:38Kendall Rae?

  was complete and people did keep coming forward with new information. Just a few days after his arrest, multiple women came forward with disturbing accounts of their experiences with Matt Owens. And just as I explained, it was sort of known information that he would pick up his friends in a squad car. It was also, I guess, sort of an open secret that he was picking up women while he was on his shift and he was also coercing and assaulting them. In one account, he had arrested a woman and then sexually assaulted her when she was in the patrol car. Another woman said that after he had forced himself on her, he told her that if she tried

• 34:19Kendall Rae?

  to tell anyone, no one would believe a drunk native woman over a police officer. And this one is really horrific, but another woman said that Owens held her at gunpoint and demanded that she perform oral sex on him. And multiple women even said that he threatened to kill them. If they said anything, and I wish this was a shock to me. But it turns out some of these survivors had informed the Nome Police Department about what he was doing. One person had even reported the incident to someone who worked in the department, while another had filed a formal complaint and no action was ever taken.

• 34:59Kendall Rae?

  And hearing something like that, you can't help but to wonder if someone had actually stepped in, had done their job, had stopped him, had upheld the standards of the department to any degree. Maybe there would be a chance that Sonya Ivanoff would be here today. And while this was all major information for the case, even more was uncovered. Someone called in a tip to report that they had seen Matt Owens burning gloves at an area known as Coffee Creek, approximately 75 miles outside of Nome. So investigators decided to thoroughly examine the area. They treated the burn pit like they were panning for gold, scooping up parts of it and sifting through it.

• 35:43Kendall Rae?

  And thankfully they did because they ended up finding a small but crucial piece of evidence.

• 35:55Kendall Rae?

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• 36:39Kendall Rae?

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• 36:56Kendall Rae?

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• 38:30Kendall Rae?

  They were able to find a shoe eyelet. And if you don't know, a shoe eyelet is a tiny metal circular part of a shoe that the laces go through. And this eyelet had a Skechers logo on it, which was the brand of shoes that Sonya was last seen wearing. And this discovery made them continue searching the burn pit, which uncovered more shoe eyelets, the metal clasp of a bra, pieces of a zipper, and a pants button with the brand Tilt on it, which was a brand that Sonya would wear. But get this, they also found a P.O. Box key belonging to Matt Owen's uncle. And if all that wasn't enough, another witness came forward to say that they saw Owens burning clothes there. So clearly, the evidence against this man is really starting to mount.

• 39:15Kendall Rae?

  But there was one significant piece of evidence that had yet to be found. The murder weapon. And while investigators were looking for it, Officer Byron Redburn made a pretty chilling suggestion. He raised the possibility of Owens taking a gun from the police evidence locker to use. And when investigators looked into it, they found a gun that used a 22 caliber bullet, the same type that killed Sonya. They also learned that the evidence locker key was kept in a mailbox in the chief's office, which anyone could access. And all this doesn't prove necessarily that Matt Owens definitely did that. It still showed that it was possible.

• 39:56Kendall Rae?

  And given this guy's character, it was not a stretch to think that he would have stolen something out of the evidence locker, right? But unfortunately, not everyone saw it that way because his family and people in his church community were strong defenders of him, and they were mad. So mad that when his trial started in 2005, Sonya's family said that Owens supporters treated them as if they were the bad guys when they were in court, which had to have been so difficult for them to deal with on top of worrying about getting justice for Sonya. Now, during the trial, the prosecution argued that Matt Owens killed Sonya and staged the

• 40:37Kendall Rae?

  theft of patrol car 321, which I think seems pretty obvious to all of us. But it might not have been as obvious to the jury because, first of all, the judge ruled that the accusations of sexual assault from all of these women weren't admissible. So they weren't able to hear that this was clearly a pattern of behavior for Officer Owens. And he hired a strong defense attorney who was prepared to pull out all the stops for his client. They argued that investigators were correct about a known police officer killing Sonya, but they said it wasn't Matt Owens. They pointed the finger at Byron Redburn, the same officer. Who suggested that Owens may have gotten the gun from the evidence locker?

• 41:17Kendall Rae?

  And they claimed that he had a motive to try and frame Owens because it turns out that Owens was having an affair with Redburn's own daughter. So all of this, coupled with the lack of DNA evidence, made it difficult to secure a conviction. After deliberating for 10 days, the jury was completely deadlocked. So the judge declared a mistrial, which was just so upsetting for everyone, especially Sonya's loved ones to have to go through this again. Sonya's brother Jacob said to the press, I knew from the beginning, Noam wasn't the place to have the trial. Jurors attended the same church as Matt Owens. I knew there could be some kind of buddy buddy system going on there.

• 42:01Kendall Rae?

  But of course prosecutors weren't going to give up. And Matt Owens was tried for a second time. This time, his defense attorneys actually requested the change of venue, which I think is an interesting choice for them, but a big win for Sonya. But the judge agreed and the trial was moved to Kotsabu, Alaska. And it began on October 17th, 2005. And this time, both sides presented their sides of the case again. But something really interesting happened after the prosecution rested their case. Officer Wayvanna was chatting with one of his neighbors, who started asking about the case. And that's when he casually dropped a bomb. He asked him if a woman named Charlotte had ever said anything about finding Sonya's ID in Matt Owens' room.

• 42:44Kendall Rae?

  Which, hearing that, you're probably really confused. And Wayvanna was too, because no one knew anything about this. And you might be asking, who even is Charlotte? Well, she's a family friend of Owens. And when him and his wife separated, she rented him a room. She also happened to be friends with Wayvanna's neighbor. And one day, she told him that she had seen Sonya's ID card with his belongings, which was the same one that was later found at the shootout scene. And even though this was a big piece of information, and I mean big, investigators weren't sure if it could still be used in the trial since the prosecution had already rested its case. But even so, they decided to go ahead and Through this information and I have to say the way they went about it was really clever.

• 43:29Kendall Rae?

  They didn't trust that Charlotte would tell the truth because she had a friendship with Owens and she might want to protect him. So instead of just interviewing her, they decided to have Levon's neighbor call her while recording the conversation. And while the two of them were casually talking, she didn't deny finding the ID at all. She even told him that she had never come forward because she figured there was already enough evidence against him. So make of that what you will. And like I said, it was clever that they decided to record this conversation because the prosecution was able to call her to the stand. And while she was under oath, she completely denied ever finding the ID.

• 44:11Kendall Rae?

  But then they got to play the recording out loud right after for her. And it proved that she was lying, which might have helped convince the jury that Matt Owens was responsible for killing Sonya Ivanoff. After all the testimony, they found him guilty of first degree murder and he was sentenced to 101 years in prison. And of course, he did try to appeal claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, but that was dismissed. And luckily for everyone, Matt Owens will spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars. And that's exactly where he should be. Now, in the aftermath of Sonya's murder, the community of Nome has dealt with a lot.

• 44:55Kendall Rae?

  Free women brought a lawsuit against the city claiming that they had been harassed, stalked and threatened by Matt Owens. And the city knew, or should have known, he was a danger to women. The Ivanoff also brought a lawsuit against the city over its hiring of Owens. And overall, the city paid out $750,000 between the suits. And after this, understandably, the people of Nome and the surrounding areas as well, really lost faith in the department. And they had plenty of good reasons for that. I mean, for one, because of Sonya's murder, it really shed a light on the lack of police resources that were being put towards sexual assault cases.

• 45:36Kendall Rae?

  I mean, the fact that multiple women had reported Owens and nothing was done about it was... Shocking to people. And between 2008 and 2017, the Nome Police Department received 372 calls about sexual assault, but only 30 of those led to any arrests. And of course, this case drew a lot of attention to the horrible reality of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, which is a massive problem in Alaska. Sonya's story really highlights that reality and the reality that the police don't always protect everyone they're supposed to be serving. Matt Owens used his uniform to get what he wanted, and he didn't care about anyone he hurt,

• 46:20Kendall Rae?

  even though he took an oath to do the exact opposite. But thankfully, there were some positive changes that came from Sonya's case. In 2007, the Sonya Ivanoff law was passed in Alaska, which mandated that any police officer who was convicted of murder would automatically receive a sentence of 99 years. And I would hope that most of you would agree with me that this should be implemented in all states. In fact, it should be implemented all over the world because police officers, at the end of the day, should be held accountable for betraying their communities. And maybe if they were, you know, afraid to have to face harsher consequences,

• 47:04Kendall Rae?

  maybe it would put a stop to some of the abuse of power that we see all the time. Sonya might have got in his car because she felt that an officer was safe to be around when Matt Owens was the exact opposite. And that is a sad reality. And because he is a selfish, sick monster, the world lost an amazing young girl with so much potential and so much life ahead of her. And it is just beyond tragic, and there is no reason for it. I know you guys are going to have a lot to say on this case, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think and hearing some of your thoughts on some of what we just talked about here at the end, because I think it's a really important discussion

• 47:49Kendall Rae?

  that needs to happen. But that is going to be it for me today, you guys. I am still on leave, but I will be back soon. Or someone will be back next week. There'll be an episode for you hopefully next week, I think. Maybe, and hopefully I'll be back for real pretty soon. Um, but that is going to be it for me today, you guys. And I will see you soon. Stay safe out there.

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