Alaska Public Media © 2025. All rights reserved.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Kenai murder suspect has prior violent crime convictions

Kenai police car (Photo courtesy of City of Kenai)
Kenai police car (Photo courtesy of City of Kenai)

The Kenai police have identified a suspect in an alleged double homicide that happened early Sunday morning.

Twenty-five-year-old Masonn Byrd of Kenai was arrested Tuesday night and charged with two counts of first degree murder.

The preliminary investigation alleges Byrd shot 60-year-old Rachelle Armstrong and her daughter, 39-year-old Lisa Rutzebeck, both of Kenai. 

Alaska court records indicate Byrd has had multiple run ins with the law, including a previous attempted murder charge in 2016 that was dismissed in a plea deal that saw Byrd plead guilty to a weapons charge and second and third degree assault causing injury. Byrd was arraigned in Kenai Wednesday morning.

Shaylon Cochran is a host and reporter at KDLL in Kenai. He’s reported on fishing, energy, agriculture and local politics since coming to Alaska in 2011. He has worked at KDLL/KBBI on the Kenai Peninsula, where he picked up lots of new hobbies, like smoking salmon, raising chickens, skiing and counting RV’s. He holds a bachelors degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.