Photo courtesy 907 Vapes

Photo courtesy 907 Vapes

Three break-ins in three months — that’s the reality that 907 Vapes E-Cigs’ shop owner Jesse James is dealing with.

The most recent burglary happened early Saturday morning. On Monday, the South Anchorage smoke shop stood with another window boarded up, but the doors are still open for business.

James is all smiles to the customers who come through the doors, adding that he’s trying to maintain an outward appearance that everything’s OK.

“I’m an emotional wreck right now,” said the 31-year-old Anchorage man. “I’m pretty distraught, because this is the third successful break-in where we’ve lost a significant amount of property and a lot of damage.”

This time, James was able to get the suspects on video — which he shared just hours later on the shop’s Facebook page.

“It appears to be the same people,” James said. “It looks like three teenage kids.”

Those sentiments were echoed in the comments of the Facebook posts. This is the second time James says he’s caught them on video, but as to who they are — that’s still a mystery.

After the Anchorage Police Department was dispatched to 907 Vapes just before 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, a K-9 was sent to assist in the search for the suspects, but that search was unsuccessful.

Being continually targeted with no suspects taken into custody yet is what James says “hurts a lot.” Those sentiments were also echoed on social media.

“This is getting old,” one of the comments reads. “This is my favorite vape shop, this sickens me.”

James says, as a business owner, “it makes me just want to fold up and close up shop and go home” — adding that he has a family to support.

“This impacts our livelihood,” he said. “And it angers me to no end.”

APD spokeswoman Jennifer Castro says it’s estimated that the damage of Saturday’s burglary extends into the thousands of dollars, with the suspects taking products and breaking the glass to enter the store. In the April burglaries, there was a bullet hole through one of the display cases and a flat-screen TV in the shop’s lounge was destroyed.

The shop is now equipped with both a surveillance system and an alarm system — which is all James says he can do at the moment. For now, it’s just a matter of cleaning up and moving forward.

“We do have our faithful customer base, and they come in and they support us,” James said. “And we’re helping people quit smoking. And I’d hate to go away.”

As for the thought of a future break-in, the shop owner says he hopes APD is able to respond faster next time.

“According to the video time, I was three minutes late,” he said. “And the officers were about three minutes behind me.

James says that speaks to APD’s staffing issues.

“We’ve got great officers, men and women that are out there patrolling and enforcing the law, but we just need more,” James said. ”I believe that if we had more, these guys would’ve been caught this time.”

APD says this case and the two previous cases are still under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact APD or, to provide an anonymous crime tip and be eligible for a cash reward, call Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP or submit a tip online.

This story originates from KYUK Public Media and was published with permission

BETHEL — Troopers at the Anchorage airport last week seized 71 bottles of whiskey from a 38-year-old southern California man bound for Pitka’s Point via St. Marys.

The WAANT investigators found the alcohol in the North Hollywood, California man’s luggage.

St. Marys’ local option laws ban the sale of alcohol. They allow importation of alcohol, but it must be labeled.

They say the investigation is ongoing.

Drew Phoenix says he received a disturbing call this morning from one of Identity, Inc.’s volunteers.

“He had ridden his bike past here at 5 a.m. and saw that our flag had been burned,” said Phoenix, executive director of Identity, Inc. “And there were remains, the charred remains were on the sidewalk.”

This isn’t the first time the organization’s flag, which flies above Fifth Avenue in downtown Anchorage, has been vandalized, Phoenix says. The organization took the flag down after it was vandalized twice last year. Phoenix says they raised a new flag in time for 2015 Alaska PrideFest, which took place earlier this month.

The incident falls on the heels of the observance of LGBT Pride Month at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on June 19 – the first ever on the Anchorage military base.

“I think it’s pretty interesting timing that it’s happening now,” said Phoenix of Tuesday’s incident.

The Anchorage Fire Department, along with the Anchorage Police Department, initially responded to the report of an arson. Phoenix, however, says this is a targeted hate crime, as the LGBT pride flag flies alongside a number of other flags on Fifth Avenue — but those flags were untouched.

“It’s not random; it’s a hate crime,” said Phoenix. “Anytime you have vandalism combined with bias, it’s a hate crime.”

This week could also be a significant one for the LGBT community nationwide, as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on marriage equality. In the meantime, with no surveillance footage and no suspect information available to hand over to authorities, Phoenix says he’s worried about his local community’s safety.

“What’s gonna be the next thing?” he asked. “People may think, ‘Oh, this is no big deal. It’s just a burned flag, but this is how hate crimes begin — in small ways and then they grow into bigger things.”

Phoenix says he’s reached out to the FBI about the incident and is expecting to hear back from investigators shortly.

Sierra Starks and Heather Hintze contributed reporting to this story.

One of  three men charged in a January homicide in the DeBarr Road Costco parking lot changed his plea Wednesday.

Nathaniel Kile, 18, was originally charged with second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the Jan. 29 shooting death of 20-year-old Jeanpal Borge, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

Police say Borge was shot and killed when the three suspects — Kile, 19-year-old Makur Chan and 20-year-old Simon Tongyik Chuar – met him to buy marijuana.

The Costco shooting was one of several homicides at the beginning of the year that led the Anchorage Police Department to form a special task force to combat growing concerns over drug activity in the city.

Kile faces five to eight years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 30.

An Alaska fugitive suspected in a vehicle theft in northwestern Montana gave law enforcement officers the driver’s license of a man who has been missing since February.

The Daily Inter Lake reports (http://bit.ly/1BDkDrL) 43-year-old Jeffrey Schubauer, who is wanted in the Anchorage, Alaska, area for violating probation, faces felony theft charges in Flathead County. Eighteen-year-old Marion resident Douglas Campbell has also been charged.

Both men have been accused of stealing a concrete company truck on June 21. An employee spotted the truck at a convenience store and called police.

Schubauer gave deputies a driver’s license belonging to 23-year-old Scott Shirk of Marion, who was last seen in February. Police eventually identified Schubauer.

Schubauer and Campbell are scheduled to be arraigned on July 9.

Sheriff Chuck Curry says officers are still trying to determine what happened to Shirk.

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Information from: Daily Inter Lake, http://www.dailyinterlake.com

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

An armed man is dead after police say he shot at a motel clerk and then turned the gun on himself.

Early Sunday morning , the front desk clerk at Midtown Motel and one of the motel’s tenants got into a verbal argument, according to a release from the Anchorage Police Department.

Police, who responded to the shooting just before 2:30 a.m., say the tenant then produced a gun and fired a single round at the clerk. The bullet went through the clerk’s clothing but didn’t injure him.

“The shooter then aimed the gun at several witnesses before fleeing the scene on foot,” APD says.

The shooter ran westbound from the motel, located at 604 W. 26th Ave.

“At the intersection of Arctic Blvd. and 26th Avenue, he turned the gun on himself and fired a single round,” the release says.

The man, who police have identified as 25-year-old Jonathan Johnson, was declared dead at the scene. His next of kin has been notified.

A man who admitted to injecting heroin into a 14-year-old who later died has been sentenced on a single charge related to her death.

Sean Michael Warner, 29, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason for the charge of distributing heroin. Warner pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 28 after agreeing to a plea deal that included a recommended sentence of 13 to 18 years.

Warner’s plea agreement included admitting to his actions that led to the drug overdose and death of 14-year-old Jena Dolstad, known as J.D. in court documents.

“Had the defendant sought help within any reasonable time, J.D. would be alive today,” U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler wrote in a sentencing memorandum, citing medical toxicologist Charles McKay. “’Medical intervention, even at the time of her noted respiratory distress would have been likely to have resulted in full recovery, given the apparent resilience of [J.D.’s] heart and some neurologic function upon reversal of her cardiac arrest.’ The defendant started J.D. in a death spiral by injecting her with a deadly drug, then he allowed her to die in an attempt to save his own skin.”

Dolstad died on Dec. 29, 2011, two days before her 15th birthday.

Jena Dolstad | Facebook

Dispute over cause of death

On the night of Dec. 22, 2011, Warner injected Dolstad with heroin at his residence on the 2800 block of Leighton Street, near Turnagain Elementary School, and again in the early morning hours of Dec. 23. She went into “physical distress” around 9:30 a.m., according to court documents, but Warner refused to call 911 until 1:36 p.m.

The exact drug that caused her death was disputed by the defense team of Max Jewett, who was charged with supplying Warner with the heroin that killed Dolstad.

According to court records, Dolstad’s death “was caused by multidrug intoxication.” At the time of her overdose, methamphetamine, cocaine, morphine and Buprenorphine were found in her system, according to an autopsy performed by medical examiner Gary Zientek.

“In Dr. Zientek’s opinion, he could not find the morphine [derived from heroin] would have necessarily been sufficient alone to have caused her death,” Jewett’s defense lawyer Barry Flegenheimer noted in a sentencing memorandum.

Warner was originally charged with manslaughter, tampering with physical evidence, second-degree theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and two counts of first-degree distribution of a controlled substance to a minor.

Those charges were dropped by Anchorage prosecutors as a federal case against the two men began. Both were indicted by a federal grand jury on Aug. 23, 2014 on multiple drug charges, including two counts of distribution of a controlled substance to a minor.

Jewett agreed to plead guilty to a single count of  drug trafficking conspiracy for distributing methamphetamine and heroin in Alaska between October 2011 and September 2013 in exchange for the rest of the charges to be dropped. He was sentenced by Gleason in May to 10 years in prison.

The road to tragedy

Warner’s family submitted several letters for consideration prior to the sentencing, urging the judge to consider mercy.

Family and friends spoke of a young man with great potential, despite coming from a home with parents who “abused drugs and alcohol, and suffered from mental illness.” As a Navy medic, Warner was sent to Afghanistan and returned home with PTSD and “significant pain from a shoulder injury and other injuries,” which one cousin noted meant a prescription for narcotic painkillers.

“As an RN and a previous psychiatric/at-risk youth counselor, I was keenly aware of the signs of drug or alcohol abuse and there was no evidence of addiction at that point, but I later discovered that such dependence had gradually developed,” she wrote.

She went on to describe the changes became apparent to the rest of his family. By the summer of 2011, she “was bracing [herself] for that phone call that would tell [her] Sean was dead or some other tragedy.” She and others attempted interventions, but nothing worked.

In response to the family’s letters, Loeffler wrote, “While the defendant’s history, including PTSD, may offer an explanation for his drug use, it does not offer any excuse for why he would bring a 14 year old girl into his drug den, inject her with heroin, then when she is clearly in life-threatening distress, refuse to seek help, allowing her to die.”

Loeffler’s sentiment was echoed by Warner’s cousin, who said jail would be beneficial for him.

“I wanted Sean to go to jail so he would be forced to get clean and be safe,” she wrote. “When I visited him at the jail in March 2012, Sean told me he is grateful to be in jail because at least he is alive and sober. Sean’s letters to me continually express humility and gratitude.”

Remembering Jena

Three and a half years after her death, Dolstad’s friends met Monday to talk about the former Service High student. They say they didn’t get much closure from the sentencing.

Shiann Rodriquez says she was surprised and angry at what she considered a light sentence for Warner.

“He deserves way more than 18 years,” Rodriquez said. “She was my friend and I don’t think it’s right that he got charges dropped. It’s just sad what happened to her.”

Bryanna Early says her friend’s death reshaped her attitude towards drugs.

“It changed me, knowing that life is valuable and it can end real quickly and it can change a lot of stuff,” Early said. “It’s not a game to play with. You do a drug, the next hour you could be dead.”

KTVA 11′s Kate McPherson contributed to this story. Contact her at kmcpherson@ktva.com

Two men have been charged in connection with drugs found in a gold refining company’s Fairbanks office earlier this month.

Robert Curry, the sole employee and key and alarm code holder of Oxford Assaying and Refining in Fairbanks, was recently fired for suspected embezzling from the company, according to a sworn affidavit from a drug enforcement officer.

On June 6, while doing inventory on the company’s larger safe, the owner of Oxford found more than $27,000 in cash, gold and sliver coins, ivory, gemstones and paperwork with Curry’s name inside two smaller safes.

Court documents show that the owner also found a crystalline substance, that was later confirmed as approximately eight pounds of methamphetamine.

During a federally warranted search of Curry’s home on June 16, a bag with an Oxford logo containing a small amount of meth and a loaded pistol was found in a red Toyota SUV. Curry acknowledged the bag and its contents were his, according to court documents.

Curry said another man — Matthew Lugin — owned the drugs found in the safe at Oxford. He claimed he had kept the safe for Lugin three other times and had also received packages from Arizona and Texas at Oxford for Lugin. Though Curry was not sure what was in the safe or the packages, he guessed it contained meth, court documents say.

During the search, a sting was arranged in which Curry asked Lugin to pick up the safe and drop off more meth. Lugin and Curry’s transaction of more than eight grams of meth was audio recorded, and a large amount of rolled up cash was found in the Mustang Lugin arrived in, according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities have nabbed an Anchorage man in connection with a years-long prostitution ring after he fled Alaska to Nevada.

Mark Daniel Alexander, 31, faces extradition to Alaska on charges of sex-trafficking and fourth-degree controlled substance misconduct — all felonies, according to an online dispatch from Alaska State Troopers and court records.

Investigators with AST’s Special Crimes Investigation Unit found Alexander “was responsible for a prostitution enterprise that spanned many years,” the dispatch says.

He is accused of recruiting women from the Lower 48 and “facilitated prostitution activities in Alaska and several states in the Lower 48,” troopers wrote. Authorities also found a commercial marijuana grow-op in his home.

Alexander fled to the Las Vegas, Nevada, area. Alaska troopers say the Henderson Police Department was integral in arresting the 31-year-old.

–This is a developing story. 

A Fairbanks man, indicted on murder charges in his wife’s death in 2014, appeared in court again Monday.

At the hearing, the defense attorney for 40-year-old John McDonald, asked the court to throw out the indictment.

McDonald was charged in the death of Crystal S. McDonald, his wife, after police say he shot and killed her in March 2014. At the scene, McDonald told police that his wife shot herself, according to a release from the Fairbanks Police Department.

Police later determined that McDonald was responsible for Crystal’s death and indicted him on first- and second-degree murder charges.

In court Monday, Bill Satterburg, McDonald’s attorney, won a motion in court that would suppress “illegally obtained statements” that McDonald made to police back in 2014. Satterburg argues that the grand jury that indicted McDonald based its decision on “improper evidence,” CBS News 13 in Fairbanks reports.

McDonald also petitioned the court for a lower bail amount, but that petition was denied.

Crystal’s sister, Sandee Rice, flew to Fairbanks for the hearing. Rice, a Wasilla resident, says she was there as a spokesperson for the rest of the family.

“My sister is not there to speak for herself,” said Rice. “I’m representing the family to say, ‘This is what happened.’”

Initially, she says she was upset that there was a possibility that McDonald’s bail would get lowered and he would be released.

“I don’t want him out,” Rice said. “I feel it’s not good enough to let him go at this time.”

McDonald’s three children are now living in Texas with his family, Rice says. If he was able to make bail, it would give him time to be reunited with his children — but Rice says some of her family fears retaliation.

Now that the defendant’s motion has been granted, prosecutors say they will move forward with what they called “circumstantial” evidence in the case. Whether the murder indictment will get thrown out remains to be seen.

“I can only pray that the judge will leave it as is and let the jury decide his fate,” Rice said.

The trial for this case is scheduled for September.

Stephanie Dizon never thought she’d find her car on the impound lot of a private towing company. The last time she saw it, it was parked in the driveway in front of her house — before it was stolen on June 11.

If it weren’t for the license plate on her car, Dizon says she wouldn’t even have recognized it now. She says the hood and tires were changed and, she’s guessing, sold.

Those aren’t the only parts of the car that are different, she says, adding that the car is now filled with what look like other stolen goods. Empty wallets, prescription pills and even used needles can now be found inside the vehicle.

“They found over 40 needles in this car,” she said. “And it’s only been missing for three weeks.”

Dizon, now eight months pregnant, says it was hard seeing her car so contaminated because it was more than just a way to work.

“We brought my daughter home in this car,” she said. “We were going to bring my next kid home in this car. And yes, I mean you grow an attachment to it.”

The car will no longer start, but Dizon says even if it did, she wouldn’t want to drive it again.

“I wouldn’t want my daughter in this car again,” she says.

Recovering and handling the car have turned out to be an expensive endeavor. Dizon’s insurance company, USAA, said the car had to have been stolen for at least 60 days before they would pay for any of the costs.

Dizon says she got a call from the Anchorage Police Department on Friday. She listened to a voicemail from them stating that her car had been found and placed in an impound lot. She was told to call back on Monday. That’s when she learned that it had been taken to a private lot and that the lot’s owners were charging her an additional fee for having stored it over the weekend.

Dizon says she had to pay nearly $200 to even see the car. Had she known the condition of the car, she says she wouldn’t have paid that amount.

“We were thinking worst case scenario, we’d drive it out,” said Dizon. “But now we’re going to have to tow it out.”

KTVA placed a call to APD to find out what the department’s policy is on impounding stolen cars. APD sent an email saying the officer that called Dizon had made a mistake:

This turned out to be a mistake by the officer. Unfortunately he confused the type of impound he did on Ms. Dizon’s vehicle with a different type of tow that would have required her to wait over the weekend for our impounds office to open. I have contacted the Patrol Captain and we’ve begun the process of getting Ms. Dizon’s tow fees returned to her. I will be calling Ms. Dizon and letting her know what we’re doing.

Dizon won’t be getting her car back, and she says she can’t afford to buy another one right now, as she’s going on maternity leave. But she is happy her story will have a less expensive ending.

A 20-year-old man was charged with 27 counts of issuing a bad check after he allegedly wrote dozens of fraudulent checks around Fairbanks for purchases totaling over $30,000, authorities say.

Tyler Rifley turned himself into the Fairbanks Police Department Wednesday night after an arrest warrant was obtained. He was remanded to the Fairbanks Correctional Center, according to a FPD release.

The checks, written to Fairbanks residents and area businesses, occurred over a one-month period. One of the purchases was a vehicle, Fairbanks police say.

An investigation on Rifley continues. Police are looking into his alleged defrauding of an online check processing company for approximately $25,000, the release says. Additional counts of issuing a bad check as well as second-degree theft and scheme to defraud charges are “likely.”

Fairbanks police encourage anyone with additional information to call Investigator Adams at 907-450-6550.

A 38-year-old Fairbanks man is in jail after troopers say he threatened his ex-girlfriend with a samurai sword before driving drunk and rolling his vehicle.

The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reports (http://bit.ly/1LKmX2H ) that the man faces several charges, including felony assault.

Alaska State Troopers say the man was drinking with his ex-girlfriend early Thursday morning and became angry when she said she had sex with another man.

The ex-girlfriend told troopers the man ripped shelves from the wall and threw them at her while yelling derogatory remarks. She says he then strangled her and grabbed a samurai sword from the wall and held it over her as though he were going to attack.

Charging documents say troopers found the sword, the victim’s computer and an open alcohol container in the man’s rolled car.

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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

A man who barricaded himself inside a home in the village of Selawik on Monday has been taken into custody, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was taken into custody at 2:30 p.m., AST spokeswoman Megan Peters says.

The identity of the deceased found outside the home has not been determined.

Earlier

A man has barricaded himself inside a residence in the northwest Alaska village of Selawik.

Early Monday morning, Kotzebue Alaska State Troopers received a report that a man was shooting a firearm in the village. The Selawik Village Police Officer told AST that the suspect barricaded himself inside a residence, according to an online dispatch.

The officer also told troopers that one person was found dead outside of the residence.

Four troopers have flown to the village. It is unknown at this time if anyone else is inside the residence with the suspect.

Selawik community members are advised to stay clear of the scene, as troopers try to “peacefully resolve the situation.”

The incident is developing, AST says. Once the situation is resolved, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation will further investigate the cause and other circumstances.

Please check back for updates on this developing story.

Troopers are asking anyone who was near the Mile 79 area of the ‪#Denali‬ Hwy during the Fourth of July weekend to contact AST at 907-451-5100.

Photo courtesy JKBrooks85 via Wikimedia Commons

Originally posted Monday, July 6

Updated Thursday, July 9 at 12 p.m. 

Authorities are investigating the death of a couple found in a trailer off the Denali Highway as a double homicide.

Autopsies confirm that both victims died from gunshot wounds, according to a Thursday release from the Alaska State Troopers.

Friday evening, Alaska State Troopers received a report of a man and woman missing from a campsite near Mile 79 of the Denali Highway, near the Susitna River Bridge.

The couple has been identified as 61-year-old Richard A. Casler and 42-year-old Lynn M. Butler, both from Wasilla.

“Initial responding troopers found evidence suggesting an altercation involving gunfire associated with their vehicle and camper trailer,” according to a Monday dispatch from AST.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation responded and took over the investigation. AST aircraft and wilderness search-and-rescue volunteers combed the area. Sunday, around 4 p.m., “troopers heard noises coming from a dilapidated trailer in the area and evidence outside associated with the missing couple,” the dispatch says. Once inside, troopers say they couldn’t determine what had made the noises.

Authorities created a perimeter and tried to establish communication, but they were unsuccessful. Eventually, responders made their way into the broken-down trailer and found Casler and Butler inside.

Troopers say next-of-kin have been notified. ABI continues to investigate this case. Investigators are asking those who were in that specific area of the Denali Highway during the Fourth of July weekend, or anyone with information about this incident, to contact AST at 907-451-5100.

From APD: If your child has had contact with Mosely and you believe they have been a victim, call APD at 786-8900.

Photo courtesy APD

Anchorage detectives fear a man who was arrested for two counts of attempted sexual abuse of a minor “may have victimized other children.”

On June 15, 30-year-old Christopher J. Mosely drove to a Mountain View apartment complex where he “enticed” a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old into a laundry room, according to a release from the Anchorage Police Department.

“Mosely had one of the girls lay down in the laundry room before the child’s grandmother intervened,” the APD release says.

Mosely, who APD says is a registered sex offender, told the girls’ grandmother that he’d been hired to fix the washing machines and needed the girls’ help moving them. After checking with building maintenance, the girls’ grandmother confirmed that was false.

Police say Mosely fled in his vehicle, but the grandmother recorded his license plate. He was arrested is currently in custody at the Anchorage Jail, where bail was set at $100,000.

Mosely was previously convicted for sexual abuse of a minor in a 2011 arrest. Police say he enticed a child to assist him in moving a mattress at a hotel where he worked. He then sexually assaulted her, APD says.

“Detectives fear Mosely may have victimized other children that police are unaware of,” the release continues, urging anyone who believes their child may have been a victim to call APD at 786-8900.

Courtesy Alaska State Troopers

Alaska State Troopers are looking for a man who cut off his ankle monitor shortly after being released from jail.

Joshua Beebe, 30, is wanted on a $5,000 warrant, troopers say, after he cut off his ankle monitor 20 minutes after his release on June 25. He was facing a charge of second-degree theft.

Beebe is described as weighing 180 pounds and being 5-foot-7-inches tall. He has brown hair and blue eyes and has a large tattoo of a cross on his neck and chest.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call either AST at 352-5401 or Mat-Su CrimeStoppers at 745-3333. CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

An Anchorage man was sentenced in court Friday afternoon for sexually abusing at least one student during his time as a teacher in several schools in Alaska.

David Schwantes, 74, was sentenced to six years in prison with four suspended by Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton. Schwantes, who was originally charged with six counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor in March.

The case against Schwantes began when former student, now an adult, came forward to police about being sexually abused by his Mt. Spurr Elementary School teacher in the late-’80s and ’90s. Schwantes worked as a third- and fourth-grade teacher at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson school between 1968 and 1993, according to a statement from Anchorage police.

Schwantes also worked as a substitute teacher for the Anchorage School District between 1993 and 1996, and was an after-school activities teacher at Muldoon Elementary School for the 1999-2000 school year.

Where he worked as a teacher was important to police because of the potential for more victims, some of whom may have left the state, APD spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said in a statement.

Jason Sear / KTVA

Jason Sear / KTVA

Jason Sear / KTVA

Jason Sear / KTVA

Jason Sear / KTVA

Jason Sear / KTVA

Charges have been filed against two Anchorage residents for their role in starting the Sockeye Fire in June.

The 7,220-acre wildfire, which was started north of Willow, destroyed 55 homes and damaged 44 other structures. The cause of the fire was determined to be illegal, following an investigation by the Alaska Division of Forestry and Alaska State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Greg Imig, 59, and Amy Dewitt, 42, did not have a required permit for the burn, according to an affidavit.

“These individuals didn’t have a permit to do the burning they were doing,” said Tim Mowry, public information officer for the Division of Forestry. ”It just illustrates the importance of the burn permit plan we have in place, to act responsibly and safely when you’re doing any kind of burning.”

If Imig and Dewitt had a permit, they would’ve been within the law legally, Mowry says. Still, the two Anchorage residents didn’t follow the burn guidelines.

They burned brush piles at their cabin near Mile 77 of the Parks Highway and didn’t extinguish the piles. Instead, they left them unattended on June 13, a release from the Department of Natural Resources says.

Those burn piles were located in direct contact with the woods.

“The area around the debris pile was not cleared down to mineral soil, there was not a hose or adequate water source to prevent the fire from spreading into the wild lands,” the release says. ”One of the piles continued to smolder and then crept out of the hot ash into the woods, resulting in a wildfire the next day.”

“That permit spells out what you’re supposed to do,” said Mowry. “Having that permit in hand and seeing that in writing, I can’t tell you if that would’ve made a difference, but it could’ve.”

Individuals responsible for starting a wildfire have the potential to be held accountable for twice the amount of the cost of fighting the fire, the department says. At last report, the cost in resources related to the Sockeye Fire were at more than $8 million.

Authorities say both Imig and Dewitt face “a variety of charges” — three counts of reckless endangerment, criminally negligent burning, failure to obtain a burn permit, burning without clearing an area, allowing the spread of fire and leaving a fire unattended.

An arraignment is scheduled for July 28 in Palmer District Court.

“This has been a tragedy for everybody involved,” Mowry said. “From the victims who lost homes to the two individuals who have been charged to people who, the land around their homes was burned.”

Debris burning is the No. 1 cause of human-caused wildfires in Alaska, Mowry adds.