Len Anderson, KSKA – Anchorage
This afternoon, standing before the Homicide Victims’ Memorial in downtown Anchorage, Police Chief Mark Mew announced that a former city resident had been charged for the March 2000 murder of Genevieve Tetpon. Tetpon was 28 at the time of her death.
Mew said Thursday a Grand Jury in Anchorage had issued a true bill for the arrest.
Torian was arrested at his workplace without incident. He’s been charged with one count of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. He will remain in custody while awaiting extradition proceedings in South Dakota.
In March, 2000, Tetpon’s body was found in the woods along Arctic Valley Road. Her death was caused by stabbing. At the time of the killing, Torian was an Anchorage high school student. According to Sergeant Slawomir Markiewicz who described some details of the investigation, the case had remained cold until in 2009 a fourth officer – Detective Dave Cordie was assigned the case.
Mew says Tetpon’s death was one of a series of murders involving Alaska Native Women in 1999 and 2000. With Tetpon’s alleged killer now arrested and if successfully prosecuted, that would be three solved, with the Della Brown and Cynthia Henry cases already closed.
And like Tetpon and Brown and Henry, the names of those two victims are also listed on Homicide Victims Memorial where today’s arrest announcement was made.
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