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You are here: Home / Cold Case News / Sophie Sergie: Hearing Day 5

Sophie Sergie: Hearing Day 5

March 11, 2021 By Alice

Sophie Sergie tiled background
Sophie Sergie

Jennifer Foster, an Alaska Crime Lab supervisor, testified March 10, 2021 by video during the pretrial hearings in the case of Sophie Sergie who was raped-murdered on April 25, 1993.

Steven H. Downs is charged in her sexual assault and murder and appeared in the Alaska Superior Court, Fairbanks. He is represented by defense attorney James Howaniec. Howaniec argued again that the murder and sexual assault charges against his client should be dismissed.

Foster went over police evidence gathering procedures and habits back in the day. She said that “investigators may not have worn gloves, wouldn’t have worn masks, and cigarette smoking was routine during autopsies.” In other words, contamination is a risk as it would be all too easy to spread your DNA while touching, sneezing, etc. It would then take an advanced DNA test to separate biological profiles.

This time, the trauma that Sophie suffered was reported differently or, I didn’t catch it before. In the Sun Journal, it said that Sophie had been “stabbed in the cheek and eye” whereas previously I read about both eyes being stabbed and not the cheek.

The official cause of death was determined to be the bullet that was fired into the back of her head.

Foster went over the original lab reports and notes. She admitted that there was a typo and partially had to speculate what the original lab technicians meant. How many typos exactly and how they might alter the findings, isn’t clear.

Remember, the case is from 1993. Procedure and evidence gathering was different then. We now know a lot more about proper evidence collection and preservation. Decades ago, we needed a petri dish filled with blood for analysis and now a drop will do. Accuracy though is not  better the bigger the sample as testing methods back then were not as refined as they are now. Semen found in Sophie’s body was identified by DNA to be Downs’ but some samples with earlier testing (90s) showed no semen, however modern technology later on, did.

I hope that this week we will hear more about the attacker’s profile and if that matches Downs. Remember what worries me most in this case: the overkill. Sophie was hit on her head, raped, gagged with some sort of ligature, shocked with a stun gun, shot in the back of her head with a .22-caliber gun, and stabbed in either both her eyes or an eye and a cheek. Last, what do we know about all the weapons used? Were any ever found and tied to the crime scene?

On March 11, the judge will hear from CeCe Moore, chief genetic genealogist with Parabon NanoLabs.

To be continued. All my posts about the Sophie Sergie case are here.

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Filed Under: Cold Case News, Unsolved Tagged With: Alaska, DNA, M-Vac Systems, Sophie Sergie

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Author Notes

On my website, I write about old, unsolved cases. Most are from the pre-DNA era and need renewed media attention. I only do research and leave active investigation of these cases to the professionals.

My posts are about homicides, missing and unidentified people, wrongful convictions, and forensics as related to these cases.

On book reviews: I only review select works of true crime, crime fiction, and historical fiction/mysteries. The stories have to fit my website's theme and research. It remains my prerogative to not review a book. Please check the FAQ page for more!

My database has hundreds of cases listed by the victim’s last name. You will find a brief description there as well. The database is free to the public.

All writing suggestions for cases that come in by email are added to my to-do list in the order in which they were received. Please be patient. My to-do list is very long but no case gets dropped and I will get back in touch.

If you have any questions about my website please check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, the about page, and the tabs in both menu bars. If you still cannot find the answer there, please contact me.

Thank you,

Alice de Sturler

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Copyright: Please add a link back if you use my work. Let your readers know where you found your information. I do the same for you. If you need help with this, just contact me. Thank you, Alice de Sturler

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