Crime & Courts

APD: 2 dead in apparent homicides at Valley of the Moon Park

NOTE: This story has been updated. Find the newest version here.

Two males were found dead along the Chester Creek Trail in Valley of the Moon Park near downtown Anchorage early Sunday, both apparently homicide victims, Anchorage police said.

Officers responding to a citizen call just before 2 a.m. found a male dead on the bike path and a second male dead nearby, police said in a statement.

"The park has been shut down while police investigate. … No one is in custody. Further information will be released as details are confirmed in the case," police said in the statement.

Around 8 a.m., crime scene tape still stretched around the perimeter of the park, located on West 17th Avenue between Arctic Boulevard and E Street. A group of police officers and a white State Medical Examiner Office vehicle were clustered near the bike path between a covered pavilion filled with picnic tables and a collection of playground equipment.

Four officers picked up a body on a stretcher from the bike trail and loaded it into the medical examiner's vehicle.

There were no immediate indications of where the other body was discovered. At least four yellow evidence markers could be seen on the ground and picnic tables beneath the pavilion, which serves as a popular barbecue spot on sunny summer days much like the one Sunday was shaping up to be.

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Around 8:45 a.m., an Anchorage Fire Department engine arrived, and crews stretched out a fire hose from the parking lot to the pavilion. As they hosed down one of the picnic tables, the water pouring off of it turned a bright red.

At 9:15 a.m., members of the Anchorage Police Department Search Team arrived, unloading metal detectors from vehicles before setting off in the direction of Chester Creek. A police officer wheeled a blue bicycle up to the mobile crime scene van.

The picnic tables had been removed from the pavilion, resting on the grass outside. Bikers and walkers stopped at the yellow crime scene tape to look.

There was no word of arrests Sunday morning as police continued to investigate the scene.

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