Anchorage Daily News

Shortly after Mindy Schloss disappeared a year ago, investigators searched the home of her neighbor, Joshua Wade, on Cutty Sark Street in South Anchorage.

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Joshua Wade

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The cops were in a hallway closet, climbing into an attic, when one of them bumped the trim around the closet door and something hidden inside the door frame hit the floor.

It was a women's gold watch, according to affidavit from an FBI agent filed last week in U.S. District Court. APD and FBI worked the case together.

The watch is a piece of physical evidence prosecutors hope will link Wade to Schloss, a psychiatric nurse practitioner found shot to death in a wooded area of Wasilla last September.

Wade, who was acquitted of murdering another woman in 2003, has been charged with her murder in federal court. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty because the killing "involved torture and serious physical abuse," according to charging documents..

Schloss wore a gold watch, the affidavit from agent Jolene Bronkhorst said. It does not say the watch they found was hers, but it was shown to a friend, then offered as evidence.

Mary Schloss, Mindy's sister-in-law remembers Mindy's watch well.

"It was her mother's," she said.

The watch was an engagement present to her mother from her father, Mary Schloss said. Mindy Schloss inherited it when her mother died.

Schloss was last seen on Aug. 3, 2007. The gold watch adds to a list of evidence prosecutors say links Wade to her disappearance and death, including:

• Wade used Schloss' ATM card to withdraw money in the early morning hours of Aug. 5 and 6, investigators say. They have ATM machine footage of a man wearing a quilted jacket, a gray backpack, a striped baseball cap and a bandana pulled up over his face or around his neck while withdrawing money from Schloss' account. They say that man is Wade.

• ATM receipts with her account number on them were found in the pocket of a black, quilted jacket at his house.

• Police found Wade's DNA on the steering wheel of Schloss' car, which was found near the airport.

• Police say dogs traced his scent from the ATMs where the fraudulent transactions were made to his house. His lawyers are contesting this evidence.

Wade's next court appearance is scheduled for October. A ruling from the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on whether he will face the death penalty if he's convicted is expected in January.

Along with murder, Wade has been charged with bank fraud, carjacking, being a felon in possession of a weapon, an illegal drug user in possession of a firearm and for having marijuana in jail. Trial is tentatively set for next May.

A separate trial for being caught with pot in jail may be scheduled sooner.

Federal prosecutors Crandon Randell and Tom Bradley and defense attorneys Gilbert Levy and Suzanne Elliot did not return calls on Monday.

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.