Alaska gets new investigator for missing and murdered Indigenous persons cases

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - As part of its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative, the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) has appointed former state trooper Anne Sears as its leader.

Sears served as an Alaska State Trooper for 22 years.

In her new role, Sears will travel out to communities around the state.

She says she was honored to come out of retirement for the position and would like to lay the groundwork for a task force.

“There needs to be a lot more focus and information about missing and murdered individuals and Indigenous persons in our state,” Sears said. “My job position is kind of going to be a work in progress, like right now I’m going to be working on some cases that are... that we still have missing folks, maybe some unsolved murder cases of Indigenous persons.”

While the numbers are believed to be higher, DPS says there are currently 250 male and 51 female Alaska Native persons listed on the department’s clearinghouse.

Sears encourages members of the public who know of someone who’s missing in Alaska to contact her via email at anne.sears@alaska.gov or over the phone at (907) 764-3864.

Copyright 2022 KTVF. All rights reserved.