Bethel Police Department

First responders to the residence in Bethel’s Trailer Court neighborhood on late Monday (April 20) afternoon were unable to enter due to “extreme heat, heavy smoke, and active flames.” After the fire was extinguished, responders found two people deceased inside.

According to charging documents, Bethel police officer Ceaira Preuett shot 53-year-old Wassillie Larson twice in the arm after Larson allegedly lunged at her with a knife in the early morning hours of March 25.

The man, who has not been named publicly, was medevaced to Anchorage to receive treatment for “serious injuries.” State law enforcement officials are investigating the shooting.

State drug investigators arrested 25-year-old Krista Waskey at a home in Bethel after she allegedly retrieved a package they had planted an electronic monitoring device inside of. Police said a second suspect, 49-year-old Renardo Stewart, escaped through a second-story window.

On Feb. 19, Judge Nelson Traverso sentenced Jonathan Murphy to complete 150 hours of community service and 100 days of confinement — which he may be allowed to complete through electronic monitoring — for a 2023 incident in which he punched a man repeatedly in the head and attempted to cover up the incident.

On Feb. 12, a Bethel jury convicted Jonathan Murphy of misdemeanor assault, providing false information, and tampering with public records for a 2023 incident in which 44-year-old Bernard Mael was severely beaten following a traffic stop and pursuit.

Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reporter Kyle Hopkins recently wrote about Whitman’s murder and Paul’s release. He said the incident speaks to wider issues within Alaska’s justice system.

In separate incidents in 2023 captured on police body cameras, Bernard Mael and Nicholas Kerr claimed that Bethel police caused them serious harm. A criminal trial is pending for a former officer involved in both incidents.

Justine Paul was indicted on flawed evidence. A defense witness wrote that police should have treated no fewer than 12 people as suspects of “higher interest.” A decade after the killing, no one has been convicted in Whitman’s death.

Justine Paul was accused of killing his girlfriend, Eunice Whitman. In Alaska’s slow-motion criminal justice system, he was kept behind bars even as the evidence against him fell apart.