Crime

The U.S. Department of Justice has allocated $3.6 million to Alaska law enforcement to support their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Those funds came from the recent $2 trillion stimulus package President Trump signed into law earlier this month. 

The Bethel District Attorney’s Office has filed new criminal charges against former Bethel principal Christopher Carmichael, and he is now being held in custody in Anchorage. On April 13, Carmichael was arraigned in state court on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. The charges are based on incidents from 2017 and 2018, when Carmichael was the principal at Gladys Jung Elementary School. 

Charges filed Tuesday, March 24 in state Superior Court show what investigators think happened in the abduction and death of 10-year-old Ida “Girlie” Aguchak in Quinhagak on March 15.

Eighteen-year-old Quinhagak resident Jordan Tyler Mark faces felony criminal counts of murder, sexual abuse of a minor, kidnapping, and evidence tampering connected with her death.

According to a written statement, Alaska State Troopers arrested an 18-year-old man for the murder of 10-year-old Ida “Girlie” Aguchak in Quinhagak on Monday, March 23. Jordan Tyler Mark is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, kidnapping, and evidence tampering.

Alaska State Troopers say that a Quinhagak girl whose body was discovered on March 16 is the victim of homicide.

The state government has been working in court to get Kuskokwim River waters cleaned up. The State Superior Court has ordered Faulkner Walsh Constructors, a Bethel construction company, to pay $4,234,414 to remove a barge that has been sunken for years.