Crime & Courts

Anchorage police seek 2 people in connection with 36th Avenue homicide

Update, 9:12 a.m., Aug. 14: Anchorage police have identified the victim of last week's shooting in Spenard.

Police said that Patricia Phelps, 48, was shot and hit by a vehicle.

Police said investigators are still looking for two people in reference to the case, including a person of interest who was seen walking with Phelps before she died.

Anyone with information can contact APD Dispatch at 786-8900 or can leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP or by submitting information online.

Original story: Anchorage police are seeking two people, a person of interest and a possible witness, in connection with a Wednesday night homicide on West 36th Avenue.

Officers responded to the report of shots fired on the 1800 block of 36th around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Once there, they found a woman dead in the yard of a multiplex. She'd been shot and hit by a vehicle, police said.

The woman has not been identified.

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Police spokesman MJ Thim said in a Friday statement the person of interest was seen leaving the scene on a motorcycle. He was last seen driving in an alley toward West 33rd Avenue, Thim said.

The witness had been seen walking with the victim before she was killed, Thim said. He was last seen walking eastbound on West 36th toward Minnesota Drive.

Police are urging anyone with information about or surveillance video of the two people being sought to call dispatchers at 907-786-8900, or to submit an anonymous tip through Anchorage Crime Stoppers.

No arrests have been made in the homicide.

The woman's death is one of four deaths in Anchorage this week.

Her death and another have been labeled homicides by police, while the discovery of two bodies in a South Anchorage home following a standoff Friday morning simply has been called a "death investigation."

A separate standoff involving a convicted murderer on Thursday ended peacefully.

Thim said police are investigating all four incidents separately and have no reason to believe that they are in any way connected.

Read more: 2 people killed in Anchorage Wednesday night, police say

2 dead after SWAT standoff in South Anchorage

Standoff ends peacefully near Lake Otis Parkway and Tudor Road

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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