Alaska News

Homeless man dies after being found outside, Anchorage police say

A man died Friday after a 911 caller reported that he was not breathing near a Midtown parking lot, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

Police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said the man was lying in the grass with his head against a large planter "as if he were sleeping there." An employee from a nearby business went to check on him and discovered that he had stopped breathing, Oistad said.

The 911 call came in at 1:24 p.m. and followed a string of reports in recent weeks of people found dead on Anchorage streets or in tents in the woods.

On Friday, medics responded to a grassy area near the corner of Northern Lights Boulevard and Dawson Street and performed CPR for about 20 minutes before taking the man to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Oistad said.

Police have not released the man's name as they work to notify his relatives, Oistad said. Oistad said the man was homeless. His body will be sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy, she said.

Oistad said police do not suspect foul play. What led to his death remains undetermined, she said. She said there was no immediate evidence that linked the death to the use of Spice, a designer drug that has sent dozens of people to Anchorage hospitals this past week.

Oistad said police responded to 15 Spice-related calls Friday. Five of the callers reported people they suspected were selling Spice, a synthetic drug banned by local and state laws.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The other calls were in regards to people behaving oddly or erratically, and Spice was suspected to be involved," she said.

On Wednesday, police blamed Spice as the cause for at least 30 hospitalizations since Sunday. Medics transported some people from the property of Bean's Cafe, a soup kitchen where a memorial was being held for seven people who had recently died.

One of them was Jolene Odomin, 38. On Aug. 1, police responded to a report of a woman not breathing just south of Sullivan Arena. Odomin's boyfriend had found her dead in a tent. She had medical issues, Oistad said.

In just the past month, police have reported a number of outdoor deaths, many of their causes unknown pending autopsies.

Ellamae Clark, 54, went into cardiac arrest July 28 across the street from Bean's Cafe. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

John Good, 61, wasn't breathing when he was found July 23 around the same location. It's in the same area where the body of Harry Oxereok Jr., 34, was found July 16.

On July 15, walkers near Campbell Park at 46th Avenue and Folker Street found the body of 23-year-old Destry Murphy inside a tent. The body of Daniel Chapman, 54, was discovered that same day inside a tent in Valley of the Moon Park, about 50 yards into the woods.

The body of Chester Ferreria, 59, was found in the woods off Fifth Avenue near the Lucky Wishbone restaurant July 13.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

ADVERTISEMENT