MMIW – The Murder of Sonya Ivanoff

Who was Sonya?

Sonya Dora Ivanoff was born on April 14th, 1984 in Nome, Alaska to Larry and Maggie Ivanoff. She was one of six children in her family. Nome is a small town with a population of just under 4,000 located on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula. The Ivanoff children grew up in the town of Unalakleet, Alaska with their parents. Unalakleet has a population of around 700, with the majority of residents being Native Alaskans, mostly Inuit. 

Sonya was popular in her village because she was so outgoing. Not only was she just a friendly person, Sonya was a superstar on her high school’s basketball team. She was a tall girl with long dark hair and a beautiful smile. While she spent a lot of her time dedicated to sports, Sonya was still a great student and was often on the honor roll. She graduated from high school in 2002 and decided to move back to Nome, this time with her best friend Timayre Towarak. Timayre and Sonya were inseparable and each others’ missing halves. While the two girls loved the town that they’d grown up in, Nome was much bigger and offered more employment opportunities. They both wanted to work for a bit and save up money for college.

Nome, much like many small towns in Alaska, had a close knit community. They had a low crime rate and their police department consisted of just seven officers. Sonya was quickly able to get a job in the hospital admissions department at the Norton Sound Health Corporation, while Timayre was working at a nearby hotel. Many people in Nome were already familiar with Sonya, she was THAT good of an athlete! She also participated in pageants for native women in hopes of earning money for college. Neither Timayre or Sonya had cars. They walked most places and used public transportation. The two best friends were 19, and having tons of fun living together. Both were hard workers, but loved hanging out with friends in their free time. Sonya was happy living in Nome and couldn’t wait to see what her future held.

The Day of the Disappearance

On Sunday, August 10th, 2003, Sonya and Timayre went over to a friend’s house to hang out and play board games. Shortly after midnight, Sonya said that she wasn’t feeling well and was going to head home. It was raining outside, but Sonya loved walking in the rain. She said goodbye to Timayre and began the walk home. This would be the last time that Timayre would ever see her best friend.

The following morning, Timayre woke up around 5AM. She’d ended up crashing on a friend’s couch, but had to wake up early for work. She took a cab home to find the house empty. Sonya wasn’t there, but Timayre wasn’t too concerned; Sonya didn’t have to work that day so she could be at a friend’s house. Timayre went to work, but didn’t hear from Sonya the entire day. Now, she was getting a bit worried. It was strange for Sonya not to text or call her at all during the day. Timayre called some of their mutual friends, but none of them knew where Sonya was or had heard from her that day. It was really unlike Sonya to take off without letting anyone know where she was. 

On Tuesday, Sonya didn’t show up for her shift at the hospital. Timayre noticed that Sonya’s makeup bag and hair supplies looked untouched. It was very unlike her best friend to go anywhere without doing her hair or makeup. That morning, on the 12th, Timayre called the Nome Police Department to see if perhaps Sonya had been arrested. Her friend had no history of getting in trouble with the law, but it was a last resort place to check. No luck. With nowhere else to search and no sign of Sonya, Timayre called the police department back at 5:16PM, this time to report her friend missing. She described what she could remember about Sonya’s outfit from the time she last saw her, very early Monday morning: blue jeans and Skechers shoes. At the time, she believed Sonya would’ve had her ID, her apartment keys, and a metal band that attached a wallet to her arm.

The search for Sonya began at 8:30PM that night, the 12th. Volunteers gathered to help police and Timayre search for the missing 19-year-old. Remember, there were only seven police officers who could only cover so much territory while still remaining vigilant for the rest of the town. The more volunteers they could get, the better. 

The Crime Scene

Unfortunately, the search ended quickly. Two volunteers, Jon Larson and his wife, saw something in the brush off of an old mining road. Just off the abandoned Dredge Road 5, they found Sonya Ivanoff. She was deceased. The road was just a few minutes outside of Nome, but not somewhere that Sonya would’ve ended up at on her own. She was completely nude except for a sock on her left foot. She had bruises to her face, neck, and chest. Investigators immediately noticed that the crime scene was odd. It wasn’t messy like they’d expect, and other than the bruising, there weren’t any obvious injuries that pointed to a manner of death. They also assumed that, due to her being nude, Sonya had been sexually assaulted

Police walked through the crime scene and around the area, picking up anything that they were worried might blow away or get destroyed. They also noted that there were tire tracks leading up the abandoned road with blood in them. Unfortunately, the Nome Police Department couldn’t investigate the scene properly while still providing coverage for the city, so they contacted the Alaska Bureau of Investigation to take over the case. Sonya was the first woman who’d been murdered in Nome in 2.5 years; they weren’t prepared to handle it alone. The criminologist couldn’t get to the scene until the morning, so the police department was responsible for keeping the crime scene secured. Officers Taylor and Owens manned the scene until ABI arrived to take over, while another officer went to inform Timayre and Sonya’s family.

The road was overgrown with brush from both sides and wasn’t regularly accessed. Occasionally people went back in the area to party or to use the bathroom, but there was no reason that anyone could think of for Sonya to have been back there. There wasn’t a large amount of blood on scene, but there was clearly blood in the muddy tire tracks, indicating that the vehicle had driven through it, then turned around at the dead end, and driven back through it. The investigators believed that Sonya had been injured or killed on the road, then dragged, still clothed, to the spot where her body had been found. She was then stripped and left.

There was deep bruising to Sonya’s face that was indicative of a struggle, perhaps someone trying to subdue her. They photographed the scene and used tape to lift any evidence they could find off of her body. When investigators lifted Sonya’s head, they found a gunshot wound to the back of her head, underneath her hair. There were no shell casings nearby and no weapon was located. It seemed as though Sonya’s murderer was evidence aware, and knew how to cover his tracks. They made impressions of the tire tracks and found a nearby branch hanging overheard, that appeared to have some blue paint on it. They believed it may have been transferred from a vehicle that drove underneath it, likely a taller vehicle, like a truck or SUV. Weirdly enough, the tire tracks indicated that there were three tires that were the same and one was different. 

On August 15th, the Chief Medical Examiner performed Sonya’s autopsy and determined that she had died from a .22 caliber bullet wound to the back of her head. He also noted that the gun had been fired from a very close range. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Investigators were shocked to find that there was NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE found on Sonya’s body. This meant no skin scrapings underneath her fingernails, unidentified hairs, fingerprints, or semen. They were right…the killer seemed to know what they were doing.

The Investigation

Investigators gathered as much information about Sonya from Tymerie as they could, including pictures from her social media. According to those closest to Sonya, there is no one in the world that they could think of that would hurt Sonya. Investigators noticed a picture of Sonya, where she had a large bruise on her bicep. Tymerie said that sometimes they’d wrestle around with their guy friends when they came over and that one of the guys, Andrew Donnelly, left that bruise. They called him Koonuk, and Tymerie said that he had a crush on Sonya. 

Police had their first suspect. They spoke to Koonuk who told them that he was out in the country, hunting and camping with friends on the night that Sonya had disappeared. He said that he’d been 73 miles away, nowhere near Nome. His friends said that Koonuk was indeed camping with them that night, but that he was sleeping in a separate shack, so they couldn’t confirm where he’d been ALL night. A warrant was obtained to search Koonuk’s home and vehicle. They found a pair of sneakers that were covered in blood. Koonuk owned a blue pickup truck and in the bed of the truck, there was a blue tarp with a significant amount of blood on it. Investigators sprayed the truck’s tires, WHICH HAD THREE MATCHING TIRES AND ONE DIFFERENT TIRE, and found more blood. Behind the driver’s seat of the truck, police located Koonuk’s hunting rifles. The butt of one of the rifles was stained with blood.

It seemed like everything was falling into place. Koonuk had a crush on Sonya, which wasn’t reciprocated, so he had a motive. He didn’t have a solid alibi and there was blood all over his shoes and truck. His tire tracks matched those found at the scene and his truck color matched the paint found on the tree branch. Despite all of this, Koonuk denied having anything to do with Sonya’s murder. He said that he’d shot a porcupine while hunting, then accidentally ran over a rabbit. The rabbit was still alive, so he crushed it with his shoes to kill it. Investigators didn’t believe his story for a minute. All of the investigators were absolutely stunned when the crime lab called to tell them that not only did the truck paint not match the paint found at the scene, ALL OF THE BLOOD WAS ANIMAL BLOOD. ALL OF IT. Koonuk was cleared of any involvement in Sonya’s murder.

Investigators hoped to find Sonya’s clothing or any of her belongings because it seemed like they didn’t have any leads. They searched the local landfill for her clothing, but came up empty. They did find a witness, Lam Ngo, a janitor at a local gas station, who had seen Sonya walk by the station between 1 and 1:15AM on the morning she disappeared. Four weeks after Sonya’s murder, the police department received a phone call from two sisters. Florence Habros and Dannite Malywotkuk were standing on the porch of their mom’s house in the early morning hours of August 11th. Dannite recognized a young woman walking by the house as Sonya Ivanoff. Dannite was a local high school athlete and knew who Sonya was because she’d seen her play in a city basketball game and recalled how talented she was. She and her sister waved to Sonya and said hello. They watched as she continued walking down the street. They then saw a vehicle pull in front of her on West D street. The driver of the vehicle rolled down the passenger’s side window and the sisters could see Sonya lean down and into the window to talk to the driver. After a few moments, Sonya got into the vehicle and it drove off. The vehicle was a marked Nome Police Department SUV. MIC DROP.

IT’S A COP

The two sisters said that the police cruiser continued on straight, rather than turning west towards Sonya’s apartment. The girls found it so strange that they noted the time. It was 1:26AM. Nome Police Department officers only used labeled squad cars while on shift, so it was easy to check which officers were on duty when Sonya was seen. The first officer was Stan Piscoya and the second was Officer Matt Owens. Owens was from Florida and had joined the Nome Police Department about three years prior. He was a firearms expert, who often trained other officers on gun use. Piscoya was from Nome, he’d grown up in the town and was well known throughout the community and came from a respected family. He’d worked in the jail before moving to the police department. He also had a connection to Sonya…he refereed at her basketball games. Both of these officers were experienced with crime scenes and would know how to clean up evidence. Not surprisingly, both officers denied anything to do with Sonya’s murder. Once the police chief realized that one of his men was likely responsible for the murder, he had the Alaska State Patrol take over.

On the night of Sonya’s murder, two of the three police department’s Ford Expeditions were on patrol. One of the Expeditions, number 983, was a newer model that looked slightly different than the other. In the early morning hours of August 11th, Officer Piscoya was driving vehicle 983, while Officer Owens was driving vehicle 321. Both of the officers claimed to have been responding to a domestic violence call around midnight and were there for about an hour. Afterwards, Piscoya said that he returned to the station to write his report and Owens left. He said that he was on bar-closing patrol at 2AM. Piscoya didn’t see Owens again until around 3AM, when he gave Piscoya a ride home. 

Both officers were asked to take lie detector tests. They both agreed and both passed the test. The Alaska State Patrol’s next plan was to bring both officers to their station in Anchorage for questioning. However, eight hours before Owens was set to leave for Anchorage, one of the Nome Police Department SUVs was stolen from the station. This was especially concerning given the access the thief would have to firearms and police equipment. They began searching for the missing SUV. 

90 minutes after the vehicle was found to be missing, dispatch received a frantic phone call from Officer Owens. He said that he’d found the missing SUV in a gravel parking lot and that someone had fired shots at him with the shotgun from the vehicle. Officers flocked to the area to find Owens alone and unharmed. He told them that he’d been ambushed and had to take cover, so he didn’t see who the person firing was. The gravel lot was just a quarter of a mile away from where Sonya’s body had been discovered. 

The SUV was towed back to the station where it was combed over for evidence. The thief had smashed in one of the windows, but no fingerprints were found on the glass or anywhere else. However, they did find Sonya’s ID, which they were certain she had with her on the night she was murdered. There was also an envelope with a typed note inside. It read:

“Pigs. I hate cops. I hate every one of you. Sonya was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do 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 shit just happened. She was just a person. And I wanted to see if I could that night. Every one of you should be more careful. I watch every move you make. You leave me alone and I will leave you alone. I will also shoot you in the head if you get close.”

The note, envelope, and Sonya’s ID did not yield any DNA results. After reviewing the note, one of the FBI profilers said that they felt the killer was familiar with Sonya. They also believed that the killer was trying hard to take the heat off the cops by continuously referring to them as pigs. This furthered their belief that the killer was a police officer. 

Investigators interviewed Officer Piscoya in Anchorage, who was fully cooperating. They were able to verify his alibi by checking his work computer to see when he was working on it. Officer Owens never showed up for his interview, stating that he was still traumatized from being shot at. Investigators didn’t buy his shit. Officer Owens was arrested on October 25th and charged with the murder of Sonya Ivanoff.

The Aftermath

The entire community was stunned. Officer Owens had been involved with Sonya’s case from the very beginning. He was one of the officers who stood at the crime scene all night to wait for the ABI to arrive and process it. Sonya’s family and friends couldn’t understand…they were supposed to be able to trust the police. How could one have killed Sonya?

It turned out that Sonya wasn’t the first woman to fall victim to Owens. After his arrest, several women came forward with their own horror stories. Six women accused him of threatening them with arrest before sexually assaulting them over the past two years. Owens admitted that he picked up people he knew while on duty, however the women said that it went further than that. He would have sex while on duty and threaten them with his firearm. His violence had continued to escalate until he finally got Sonya in his car on August 11th.

It was determined that while Sonya’s gunshot wound was from a .22 caliber handgun, it was not Owens’ duty gun, however he did have access to the department’s gun safe. Investigators continued trying to connect Owens to the crime scene. Unfortunately, none of the squad cars, including the one that Owens was driving that night, matched the tire tracks or the blue paint on the branch at the scene. One of the crime lab analysts was actually out in town, actively looking for a vehicle that matched the tire tracks and the paint. HE FOUND ONE. It belonged to a man named Benjamin Niles, who denied having anything to do with Sonya’s murder. He said that he and his girlfriend, who lived way out in the country, had driven to Nome on August 12th for lunch. As they were driving home, she asked him to pull off of the road so she could pee. From his description, he had turned onto the road where Sonya’s body was later found. He had a receipt to back up his story and his girlfriend told police the same thing. There was no proof that Niles had anything to do with the murder, just that he was at the scene.

The crime lab determined that because of where vegetation was found on her body, along with the rain that night, Sonya had been killed and placed at that location somewhere between 12AM and 5PM on the 11th. Niles hadn’t driven down the road until almost 20 hours later. Police felt confident that he wasn’t involved in the murder.

Not long after Owens’ arrest, a local woman came forward to police and told them that she’d been dating Owens that summer. She said that in the week after Sonya was found, Owens took her camping in the mountains north of Nome, and that he stayed up late burning things. She was able to give them the location of the campsite. When investigators arrived at the campsite, they found a large fire pit and began sifting through the ashes and debris. Inside the pit they found pieces of a belt, the underwire of a bra, and several eyelets from shoes that matched the ones Sonya had been wearing when she disappeared. This was exactly what they needed to fully connect Owens to the murder. 

The Trial

On January 18th, 2005, Owens went to trial for the murder of Sonya Ivanoff. Owens’ defense petitioned for the trial to be moved to a city where there’d been less publicity and gossip, but this request was denied. Almost twenty witnesses were brought to the stand to testify, including the sisters who’d seen Sonya get into the police vehicle. Owens’ ex-wife was even brought in, with a very strange story. She said that Owens had called her and asked her if she could take their son. He told her that he needed to go into work because there was a missing girl and “it didn’t look good”. Owens reportedly gave her the name and description of Sonya. THIS WAS 45 MINUTES BEFORE TYMAYRE REPORTED HER MISSING.  

Since the prosecution didn’t have any DNA evidence AT ALL, they used that as a point to back up the fact that this could’ve only been committed by someone who was evidence-aware. The testimony of the two sisters seeing Sonya get into a police cruiser. The fact that there were only two officers in police SUVs that night and one of them had an alibi. Piscoya saying that he didn’t know where Owens was for two hours that night. They brought forward the evidence found in the fire pit that Owens had been at after Sonya’s murder. Tymayre confirmed that Sonya had been wearing Skechers that night and owned a pair of Tilt brand jeans. The grommets and metal pieces found burned in the pit matched these brands. With all of this, they argued that Owens was really the only possible suspect. Owens even took the stand in his own defense, testifying under oath that he did not kill Sonya. 

The jury deliberated for five days, but were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. On January 28th, 2005, the judge declared a mistrial. The jury foreman later said that most of the jury was in favor of convicting Owens, some were unsure because of the lack of concrete evidence against him.

Trial Number Two

The second trial of Officer Matthew Owens began on October 17th, 2005. His defense attorney again requested a change of venue and was again denied. The state presented the same case as they did the first time. The jury deliberated for three days and found Matthew Owens guilty of the first-degree murder of Sonya Ivanoff and evidence tampering. He was sentenced to 101 years in prison. It’s unknown if will ever be eligible for parole. Investigators believe that Owens offered Sonya a ride home. While she was in the passenger’s seat, Owens likely began making Sonya uncomfortable, whether it was propositioning her or touching her. When Sonya said no and asked to get out, Owens likely realized that Sonya was a well-respected and well-known woman in the community. If she made an allegation against him, it would be very likely to be taken seriously. HE COULD LOSE HIS JOB. So he decided to kill her. 

On April 27th, 2007, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin signed The Sonya Ivanoff Act into law. The act in part read:

“A defendant convicted of murder in the first degree shall be sentenced to a mandatory term of imprisonment of 99 years when…the defendant is a peace officer who used the officer’s authority as a peace officer to facilitate the murder.”

There were a number of reasons that this act was adopted into law. They reasoned that law enforcement officials have a sworn duty to serve and protect the community and respect the rights of the constitution. They believed that law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard. Considering the fact that Owens lured Sonya to her death using his police car, he breached his duties. Understandably, the entire event left a lasting mark on the Native community and those in the area of Nome.