In Alaska Murder, Arresting the Boyfriend Was a Big Mistake

Alaska didn't solve who killed 23-year-old Eunice Whitman, but its justice system did manage to lock up the wrong man for seven years, ProPublica reports, in a gripping investigation of two eerily similar murders that police have not linked. Whitman of Bethel, Alaska, was found in May 2015 on tundra at the end of a heavily-trafficked boardwalk: stabbed in the throat and chest, clothes removed and placed nearby. Police quickly arrested her boyfriend, Justine Paul, telling the public her blood was on his clothes. A grand jury indicted him 11 days later. The case then stalled for years as the supposed key evidence quietly crumbled: state lab testing showed the blood on Paul's clothes matched him. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges in 2022. By then, Paul had spent seven years in jail awaiting trial.

His defense attorney, former prosecutor Marcy McDannel, came to believe police had focused on the wrong man while overlooking others. Male DNA on Whitman's body did not match Paul, the four men who found her, or a registered sex offender seen in the area. A defense expert later identified at least a dozen people who, he argued, should have ranked as higher-priority suspects than Paul based on their proximity or past contact with Whitman. Among them: a man with a history of violence on the same boardwalk; an ex-boyfriend she named in a restraining order; and a man who had Whitman's phone and a bandaged hand a week after her death. None were charged; two are now dead.

McDannel kept digging after Paul's release and zeroed in on another possibility: convicted killer Samuel Atchak. Nine months before Whitman's murder, 19-year-old Roxanne Smart was found in the nearby village of Chevak, also partially nude on the tundra, stabbed in the throat and torso, her clothing arranged close by. Atchak confessed in that case, saying he surprised Smart from behind before making her blackout, and is serving 115 years. In a 2022 prison interview, he coolly analyzed Whitman's killing, theorizing about the attacker's motive and method (surprise from behind with a "chokehold.") He also recalled being in Bethel on the weekend of the killing, on a flight stopover.

State troopers later told McDannel that travel and medical records ruled Atchak out in Whitman's case but did not share the underlying documents; Atchak has declined new interviews. Public pressure resurfaced in January, when an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous people posted about Whitman online, prompting calls to police. In March, Alaska's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons unit took over the case and says it is starting from scratch. However, Whitman's family says they still haven't been re-interviewed—and still don't know who killed her. While officials concede "unacceptable" delays in the case, citing heavy turnover among rural prosecutors, they maintain that everyone acted properly.