A driver involved in a car crash in Anchorage late Monday faces murder charges after a person in the vehicle he was driving was found dead from injuries she suffered before the collision, Anchorage police said.
Benjamin Wilkins has been charged with first-degree murder, first- and second-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, driving under the influence and driving with a suspended or revoked license.
Wilkins, 34, was the driver of a Subaru that crashed into a pole on DeBarr Road Monday evening, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
The only other person in the car was a dead woman, who police identified as 30-year-old Jacqueline Goodwin.
"It was clear she had died from injuries suffered prior to the crash," police department spokesperson Renee Oistad wrote in a release.
Police are continuing to investigate the crash and Goodwin's death. Officers have carried out several interviews and are in the process of serving search warrants on "different locations," Oistad said, adding that police are not looking for anyone else connected to the crime.
Oistad said she could not be more specific about how police knew Goodwin died before Wilkins struck the light pole.
"I can't say," she said.
Officers responded to the collision near Alaska Regional Hospital, on the 2800 block of DeBarr, at about 11:40 p.m.
"The male driver was taken into custody on suspicions of impaired driving; his passenger was found to be deceased," police initially reported.
The State Medical Examiner Office is set to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of Goodwin's death.
Traffic in both directions on DeBarr was closed for several hours by the pole brought down in the crash, Shell said, with DeBarr reopening to traffic by about 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Municipal Light & Power spokeswoman Julie Harris said the sedan hit a wooden street light pole, which was being replaced Tuesday afternoon.