FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 1993: Sophie Sergie was a first generation college student from a small village in rural Alaska who set her eyes on building a better future for herself and her family. In April of 1993, someone cut that future short.
This case played out on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks over 4000 miles from New England and nearly three decades in the past, but the long arm of justice knows no limits of distance or time. DNA evidence reached across the farthest corners of the United States to implicate the alleged killer of Sophie Sergie. He was working as a nurse in Auburn, Maine.
The 2019 arrest of Steven Downs seemed like the first sign of real closure for Sophie’s family, but as the trial proceedings play out in Alaska Superior Court right now in January of 2022, what seemed like a clear answer on the surface gets more difficult to pin down each day.
This is Part I of Sophie Sergie's story.
View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/sophiesergie
Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.
The Disappearance of Audrey Groat (Vermont)
The Victims of the Hitch-Hike Murderer (Massachusetts)
The Murder of Gwendolyn Taylor (Massachusetts)
The Suspicious Death of Barbara Ann Ripley (Maine)
The Disappearance of Nadine Mendonça (Massachusetts)
The Murder of Matthew Margolies (Connecticut)
The Murder of Jon Pownall (Maine)
UPDATE: The Murders of David Nixon & Steven Ray Johnson (Maine)
The Murders of David Nixon & Steven Ray Johnson (Maine)
The Murder of Jimmy Stone (Connecticut)
The Murder of Patricia Moreno (Massachusetts)
The Disappearance of Ralph Jean-Marie (Vermont)
The Victims of the Last Call Killer (New York)
The Murder of Frederic Alan Spencer (Maine)
The Murders of Laura Kempton & Tammy Little (New Hampshire)
The Murder of Raymond "Butch" Weed (Maine)
The Murder of Anita Piteau, The Huntington Beach Jane Doe (California)
The Murder of Anne "Nancy" Payson Holt (Maine)
The Disappearance of Kristopher Bryan Lewis (Massachusetts)
The Murder of Louise Chaput (New Hampshire)
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