A convoluted murder investigation is underway in the remote Alaska Peninsula village of Ivanof Bay.
Authorities were still on-scene Wednesday afternoon in Ivanof Bay, where 31-year-old Joseph Peterson was shot and killed late Saturday or early Sunday.
A helicopter from King Salmon and the Wildlife Trooper patrol vessel Cama’i were both dispatched after the shooting was reported around 1:40 a.m. on Sunday, July 17.
A tribal council worker in neighboring Perryville told KDLG News he received a voicemail early Sunday from someone in Ivanof Bay saying they needed a medic. He said it seemed like everyone involved was intoxicated. By the time he called back, he said, Peterson was dead.
Ivanof Bay is on the pacific side of the Alaska Peninsula, just west of Perryville. The dwindling village has had few year-round residents since its school closed in 2000. It’s believed there are only three people living there now.
It’s unclear whether Joseph Peterson was a resident or a visitor. His next of kin have been notified and the body taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Officer for autopsy.
On Wednesday afternoon, a State Trooper sergeant in Dillingham said some of the initial statements about the shooting had changed, and details were hard to determine. All parties involved were still on-scene in Ivanof Bay, and the case has been turned over to the Alaska Bureau of Investigation.
Hannah Colton is a reporter at a in Dillingham.
