Authorities acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the 52-year-old Schloss, last seen by acquaintances Aug. 3, is probably dead. They said they found Wade's DNA on the steering wheel of her car but refrained from identifying him as a suspect, calling him instead a "person of interest."
They just want to talk to Wade, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman.
The feds however, want to arrest him.
Wade, who was living next door to Schloss, used her ATM card to withdraw $1,000 from her bank account the weekend she went missing, said the FBI. The U.S. Attorney has charged Wade with bank fraud and identity theft.
Wade remained at large late Wednesday and is listed by police as armed and dangerous.
In 2003, after a sensational trial, a jury acquitted Wade on charges he raped and beat to death 33-year-old Della Brown, whose body was found in Sept. 2000.
Wade was represented by some of the best criminal defense lawyers in the state, who argued that he happened on Brown's body after someone else killed her. Wade, his attorneys said during the trial, claimed to have killed her only to impress his friends.
The jury found Wade guilty of evidence tampering but acquitted him of all other charges. He was eventually sentenced to five years, plus 18 months for a parole violation in an earlier conviction. Since he had remained in jail from his arrest in 2000 to his acquittal in 2003, he was released in December 2004.
According to the FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on Aug. 24 to support the bank fraud arrest warrant, Wade happened to be living in the house next door to Schloss on Cutty Sark Street in the Sand Lake area, in a house with two men and a woman. The FBI affidavit, does not say when Wade moved in, only that he was living there before and after she was reported missing.
Early on Aug. 5, the FBI affidavit says, a man later identified as Wade used Schloss's ATM card to withdraw $500 from the Sand Lake branch of Wells Fargo, not far from Schloss's home.
On Aug. 5, Schloss failed to show up for a flight to Fairbanks where she worked every other week on contract as a psychiatric nurse. She also missed all of her later appointments, according to police and friends.
Early on Aug. 6, roughly 24 hours after her card was first used, the same man withdrew another $500, this time from the Credit Union 1 branch on Eide Street, according to the affidavit.
On this second occasion, a witness saw the suspect and later was able to give investigators a detailed description.
The suspect had already made balance inquiries and knew Schloss' account contained more than $20,000, according to the affidavit. But he apparently lost the card in the ATM, police said, perhaps being too slow to take it back after his withdrawal.
Security cameras show him walking back and forth inside the lobby and apparently trying several times to get the card back from the ATM, the affidavit says.
Schloss was reported missing Aug. 6. Her car was gone too. Police issued a missing-person bulletin the next day. On Aug. 9, her red Acura was found near an air cargo facility on Old International Airport Road.
A security camera in another building caught a man leaving the car there.
On Aug. 18, police used a warrant to search the house on Cutty Sark where Wade was living. There they found clothes matching those worn by the suspect in the ATM videos, according to the affidavit. Inside the pocket of a jacket was a withdrawal receipt for $500 from Credit Union 1 dated Aug. 6, the document says.
Della Brown's mother learned Wednesday afternoon that police were looking for Wade, the man she believes killed her daughter seven years ago and got away with it. "Oh no," she cried. "They just wouldn't find him guilty," she said of the jury.
Anchorage police were being very closed-mouthed Wednesday about whether Wade was still around when they first identified him as a suspect.
Schloss' closest relatives, her brother's family in Syracuse, N. Y., where she lived before moving to Alaska more than 20 years ago, said news of Wade's apparent connection to the case was dismaying.
"We are all hurting," said niece Tamar Schloss. "We're just trying to keep up hope of anything, of at least finding out what really happened."
In Anchorage, Susan Jones, a friend and colleague, said she was overcome when she heard Wade may have been involved. "We were all thinking something horrible happened to her. And then, when his name came into the mix, it was just a sickening feeling."
Police want to talk to Wade most, but are also interested in any of his associates who may have information about the case. Lt. Dave Koch said, "Historically, in cases like this, there are often others who know where the body is. We are hoping someone will call and tell us."
Police Capt. Gardner Cobb said investigators are putting a lot of resources behind the case. "We are working this very hard."
Anchorage friends of Mindy are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to finding Mindy's body.
Schloss' sister-in-law, Mary, said when reached in New York late Wednesday, "We'd like this just to end."
Find Megan Holland at mrholland@adn.com or call 257-4343 and Peter Porco online at adn.com/contact/pporco or call 257-4582.
WANTED: Anyone with information about Joshua Wade is asked to call police. Wade is described as between 5-feet-10 and 6-1, 180 pounds with sandy-colored hair and hazel eyes. He has several tattoos on his body, including a snake on his left hand between the thumb and forefinger. Wade is believed to be armed and dangerous, and no one should try to apprehend him, police said. Call APD at 786-8500, the FBI at 276-4441 or Crime Stoppers at 561-7867. Tipsters may call Crime Stoppers anonymously. Information leading to a conviction may result in an award of up to $1,000.
Anatomy of an investigation: DNA evidence and ATM records
APD says Joshua Wade, 27, is a "person of interest" in the disappearance and presumed death of nurse Mindy Schloss. An affidavit filed by the FBI to support bank fraud charges says Wade lived with three others in a house next door to Schloss.
Schloss disappeared on Aug. 3 or Aug. 4. Her 2000 red Acura was found a few days later in a parking lot on Old International Airport Road, near an air cargo office.
Security cameras from a nearby building recorded a man parking the car in the lot at 12:45 p.m. Aug. 4, sitting in it for a while, then leaving carrying a backpack or bag.
The state crime lab found DNA "consistent with" Wade's on the steering wheel of the car, the FBI affidavit says.
On Aug. 8, police learned that Schloss' ATM card had been used twice:
On Aug. 5, the Sunday after Schloss vanished, $500 was withdrawn from an ATM on Jewel Lake Road. Security photos showed a white male with a bandana over his face, a baseball cap pulled low on his forehead.
On Aug. 6 at about 4:15 a.m., a $500 withdrawal was made from an ATM on Eide Street by what appeared in security photos to be the same man, the affidavit says. A witness to this transaction said the man was riding a silver bicycle and matched the general description of the suspect.
Security cameras indicate the suspect returned to this ATM several times, apparently trying to retrieve Schloss' ATM card, which the machine kept, perhaps because the suspect forgot to pull it out after the withdrawal.
Schloss had more than $20,000 in the account, which the suspect knew because he had checked the balance on Aug. 5 and 6, the affidavit says.
On Aug. 18, Anchorage police executed a search warrant on the house where Wade lived and seized a silver and red bicycle, black quilted jacket and dark bandana. The crime lab found a receipt in the jacket from the Eide ATM for $500, dated Aug. 6.
Source: Affidavit of Special FBI Agent Michael Thoreson, 8/24/07.
Profile of Joshua Wade
Joshua Wade, a "person of interest" in Mindy Schloss' disappearance, was born March 18, 1980, in Great Falls, Mont. He moved to Alaska at age 13. He has said he attended the Whaley school and did time in McLaughlin as a juvenile.
1999
• Wade was arrested three times for minor crimes.
2000
• Charged in January with felony robbery, rape and burglary, he pleaded to a weapons charge and served about five months in jail. On Sept. 2, Della Brown was found dead in a Spenard shack. Wade was charged Sept. 30 with her murder and jailed until trial.
2003
• From Jan. 21 to April 9, Wade was on trial for murder, robbery and other charges.
The prosecution said he beat and killed Brown, raped her after she was dead, then brought friends to see her body and bragged about the crime.
The defense said he happened on Brown's body and claimed credit for killing her but didn't do it; he was trying to impress some tough friends.
• On April 16, Wade was acquitted by the jury on all charges except tampering with evidence.
• On Sept. 4, he was sentenced to five years for evidence tampering plus 18 months for violating parole on the earlier weapons conviction.
2004
• On Dec. 18, Wade was released from prison.
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