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 Murder of Helen Jewett (New York)
The Still Unsolved Murder of Darien Richardson (Maine)
The Murders of Jack & Florence Bettencourt (Maine)
The Suspicious Death of Morgan Patten Part 2 (North Carolina)
The Suspicious Death of Morgan Patten Part 1 (North Carolina)
The Murders of Sandra Valade, Pamela Mason & Rena Paquette (New Hampshire)
The Murders of Carrie Moss & Sonya Moore (New Hampshire)
The Murder of Susan Taraskiewicz (Massachusetts)
The Haunted Lighthouses of Seguin & Boon Island (Maine)
The Murder of Judith Flagg (Maine)
The Disappearances of Tina & Bethany Sinclair (New Hampshire)
The Murder of Tammy Dickson (Maine)
The Disappearance of Robert "Bobby" Desmond (Maine)
UPDATED: The Murder of Leslie Spellman (Maine)
A Conversation with Ashley Flowers, Host of Crime Junkie
The Cons of Mair Smith Part 2 (Maine)
The Cons of Mair Smith Part 1 (Maine)
The Murders of Dominic Kirmil and Irvin Hilton (Massachusetts)
The Murder of Kenneth Zernicke (Maine)
The Death of Elmer McCurdy (Maine)
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