The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica spent two years investigating sexual violence in Alaska and why the situation isn’t getting better. The reporting documented systemic problems across the state, along with potential solutions. The project was driven by Alaskans who shared their own experiences, and reporting that documented how deep and systematic the problems were. The series was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for public service along with a number of other national and regional honors.
Unheard
By Adriana Gallardo, Nadia Sussman and Agnes Chang, ProPublica, and Kyle Hopkins and Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News || Photography by Anne Raup, Loren Holmes and Marc Lester, Anchorage Daily News || Editing: David Hulen and Anne Raup, Anchorage Daily News, and Charles Ornstein and Ariana Tobin, ProPublica.
Western Alaska school district that employed principal despite sex abuse complaints will pay $3.8 million to his victims
A school principal who abused young girls kept his job despite years of complaints. Now the Bethel-based Lower Kuskokwim School District will pay millions to his victims. His conviction is part of a series of failures by the state’s schools to protect students from educators.
Alaska failed to obtain DNA samples from 21,000 people accused of crimes, contrary to state law
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said police, Alaska State Troopers and corrections officials would follow the law going forward and would try and track down missing DNA.
Alaska requires that DNA be collected from people arrested for violent crimes. Many police agencies have ignored that.
By failing to collect those DNA samples, law enforcement has left Alaska’s DNA database with crucial gaps, allowing at least one serial rapist to go undetected.
After 3 years and $1.5 million devoted to testing rape kits, Alaska made one new arrest
First of two parts: In the state with the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation, testing the backlog of rape kits may not be enough. Many were from cases where the identity of the suspect was already known, or were opened only to find no usable DNA.
Former Iditarod musher found guilty of rape, kidnapping in 19-year-old cold case
A Kenai jury heard from a second woman who said Carmen Perzechino assaulted her in a vehicle. It was the first felony jury trial held in Alaska since March.
Alaska’s ‘him too’ moment: When politicians and allies come with accusations of their own
As scandals force Alaska politicians to resign, nowhere have the accusations been more severe than a remote rural district where male leaders are proving to be part of the very problems they’re supposed to be solving.
A ‘blight’ of domestic violence deaths strikes Alaska villages
In an isolated and sparsely populated region of Alaska, there were five domestic violence homicides in 10 days. The pandemic has limited emergency services, and without shelters, many say, these deaths are no surprise.
WATCH LIVE: How we reported on Alaska’s sexual assault survivors — and what has happened since
Join us on Friday, July 10, for a live event co-hosted by the ADN and ProPublica.
Watch Alaska journalists, sexual assault survivors discuss our ‘Unheard’ series in this special online event Friday
Watch Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica journalists share the story behind the stories in our ongoing, Pulitzer Prize-winning series in a special digital event Friday at noon.
An opportunity to learn as our ‘Unheard’ project becomes a museum installation
An outdoor installation at the Anchorage Museum will feature 27 sexual violence survivors who chose to tell their stories publicly. "Without the stories, there is silence," the museum's director says.
For decades, she blamed herself for the abuse. Writing her story was an act of survival. Publishing it was an act of rebellion.
From early childhood, Tia Wakolee believed she was at fault for being repeatedly assaulted. Then she began to chronicle her abuse on index cards arranged on her kitchen table and decided to share her truth.
Her addiction landed her in a prison segregation wing. The man she says abused her lives free.
Ricki Dahlin turned to a life of crime and drug addiction after being sexually abused as a child. “We’re broken. We’re trying to fix ourselves.”
Her attacker was stopped in the act and arrested, but this assault was only the beginning of her trauma
Everything Mary Savage did in the hours after the attack was dissected on the witness stand, an experience so upsetting she vomited. But years later, she finds comfort knowing her testimony led to his conviction.
‘They were the authority and I didn’t argue with authority’
In an era before rape kits, Sue Royston decided to fight for justice even though the police doubted her, the prosecution discouraged her, and those around her dismissed her story.
The teacher who returned to the rural Alaska village where she was abused is not staying silent
“I’m not going anywhere.” Marie Sakar tried to treat her trauma with alcohol until she learned that silence only serves to protect those who hurt her. Now, she’s back, sober and teaching in her hometown.
She was trapped at sea alone with her assailant. He told her, ‘You’re mine for the week.’
Nearly seven years ago, Cathleen stepped on a fishing boat expecting a week of hard work and good pay. Within hours of leaving shore, the captain began to touch her.
How we worked with Alaskan sexual assault survivors to tell their stories
Journalists from the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica spent months hearing from, and listening to, dozens of survivors about how they processed their trauma. Here’s how we told these stories fairly and accurately.
How photographers sought to redefine the image of Alaska’s sexual assault survivors
In capturing these photographs, the aim was to portray the underlying courage and strength of each person and to focus on who they had become.
Here’s what experts say to do if you experience sexual assault in Alaska
We consulted six professionals in Alaska who work with survivors of sexual assault, including a therapist, a law enforcement officer, advocates for survivors, a nurse and a prosecutor. We compiled their guidance on the choices survivors can make.
Giving voice to Alaska’s unheard sexual assault survivors
We’re publishing our most ambitious effort yet to give voice to those who have been sexually assaulted in Alaska. We have talked to hundreds of survivors over the past year who have shared their stories.
A Western Alaska school district repeatedly dismissed allegations against a principal. Then an FBI agent pretended to be a 13-year-old girl.
The principal for one of Alaska’s largest rural elementary schools, in a region with some of the highest sex-crime rates in the nation and a state with a history of failing to protect students, was allowed to remain on the job until the FBI got involved.
Gov. Dunleavy proposes bill to prevent criminals from working as Alaska village police officers
Under the proposal, a village police officer working despite felony or sex crime convictions could face new charges of impersonating an officer
Can Alaska’s VPSO program be saved? A task force suggests big changes.
State legislators will propose giving village public safety officers more flexibility and independence.
‘We can make this a better place': Iowa police round up supplies and cash to better equip an Alaska village force
After reading that Savoonga officers don’t have bulletproof vests, guns or even Tasers, an Iowa officer reached out to help.
Six ways to fix Alaska’s law enforcement crisis
More than a third of Alaska communities have no local police of any kind. Criminals have been hired as cops in some remote villages. A federal emergency has been declared and millions of dollars are promised, but here’s what else experts recommend.
We found 14 villages that hired criminals as cops. Here’s what the state is doing to change that.
The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found small Alaska cities have employed police whose criminal records should have prevented them from being hired. Now, the state board is working to ensure they meet basic hiring standards.
In search of solutions to Alaska’s law enforcement crisis
We spent a year investigating how Alaska’s sexual violence crisis is compounded by a lack of law enforcement. Now, we’re looking at the system and how it can be fixed.
Looking for Alaska’s ‘rural’ state police force? Check the fast-growing Mat-Su Borough.
Many remote Alaska villages have no law enforcement at all. But state troopers can be found in some wealthier, mainly non-Native suburbs, where growing communities have resisted paying for their own police departments.
Why remote Alaska communities that need cops aren’t getting them
A tiny Alaska village got a police officer. He’s never had to make an arrest. Meanwhile, larger communities with more crime have often been left behind as the state’s two-tiered policing crisis gets worse.
360-degree video: Tour the village of Russian Mission
Ride along on a musher’s sled, run with kids through the village and take a look around the school, which is the community’s main social hub.
Photos: Life in Russian Mission
Russian Mission is a Yukon River village of about 340 people.
The last police officer
Days before his death in 2005, Simeon Askoak told officials how a key Alaska rural policing program was broken. His village hasn’t had another permanent cop since.
A review of sexual assault cases handled by Nome police found 1 in 4 warranted more investigation. Now the audit has stalled.
The sweeping examination of 14 years of sexual assault reports has stalled due to turnover and heavy workloads within the small department.
Justice Department will fund more prosecutors, cops in rural Alaska
To improve what it calls a public safety emergency, the DOJ detailed how it will spend $10.5 million. Alaska Native advocates want long-term reforms to increase their role in local justice systems as well.
She leapt from a van on the Kenai Peninsula to escape her rapist. Then she waited 18 years for an arrest.
Anna Sattler’s rape kit sat untested for almost 20 years as Alaska’s backlog got worse. Now, an ex-Iditarod musher faces charges, and she’s speaking publicly about the attack for the first time.
Clergy abused an entire generation in this village. With new traumas, justice remains elusive.
Long before city officials said they had no choice but to hire criminals as cops, justice was elusive in the Norton Sound village of Stebbins and neighboring St. Michael.
‘I made a change in my life’: Village police say they make a difference despite criminal records
The seven officers in Stebbins explain their criminal records and what it’s like to serve as a police officer there.
Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in rural Alaska. Sometimes, they’re the only applicants.
In one village, every cop has been convicted of domestic violence within the past decade, including the chief. Only one has received formal law enforcement training of any kind.
US attorney general declares emergency for public safety in rural Alaska, freeing up $10.5 million to support police
The announcement comes a month after William P. Barr visited the state to hear concerns about a lack of police in rural communities.
Discussing Alaska’s history of sexual violence is one step toward seeking solutions
Seventy people, including elders and Alaska public officials, gathered in Kotzebue for a public conversation on a well-known but rarely discussed statewide problem.
‘No more silence’: The kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a 10-year-old stunned an Alaska town and helped to spur a movement
“Our daughter started something,” said the father of Ashley Johnson-Barr.
'Enough is enough’: Alaska Native leaders ask U.S. attorney general for help, tribal authority to make up for lack of police
Attorney General William Barr is on a four-day swing through Alaska to learn about unique public safety challenges facing remote villages without local law enforcement.
Why we’re investigating sexual violence in Alaska
Something has changed in the way Alaskans talk about sexual assault. A yearlong partnership between the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica aims to highlight the stories of violence and survival in the Last Frontier.
Lawless: One in three Alaska villages have no local police
Special report: A first-of-its-kind investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found more than 70 Alaska communities — places with some of the highest rates of sexual assault in the U.S. — have no local police protection.
How we tallied Alaska communities without local law enforcement
The methodology behind our investigation.
Have you experienced sexual violence in Alaska? Help us report these stories.
The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica have teamed up to listen. Do you work with victims, in government or law enforcement? We need to hear from you, too.
