The Murder of Sophie Sergie, Part 1 (Alaska)

Dark Downeast

audiochuck

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 1993: Sophie Sergie was a first generation college student from a small village in rural Alaska who set her eyes on building a better future for herself and her family. In April of 1993, someone cut that future short. This case played out on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks over 4000 miles from New England and nearly three decades in the past, but the long arm of justice knows no limits of distance or time. DNA evidence reached across the farthest corners of the United States to implicate the alleged killer of Sophie Sergie. He was working as a nurse in Auburn, Maine. The 2019 arrest of Steven Downs seemed like the first sign of real closure for Sophie’s family, but as the trial proceedings play out in Alaska Superior Court right now in January of 2022, what seemed like a clear answer on the surface gets more difficult to pin down each day. This is Part I of Sophie Sergie's story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	She was a first-generation college student from a small village in rural Alaska who set her eyes on building a better future for herself and her family.
0:11.0	Hard-working, bright, with a big heart.
0:15.0	She did everything right, but in the spring of 1993,
0:19.5	someone chose to put out the light that was 20-year-old Sophie Sergi.
0:26.2	This case played out on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, over 4,000 miles
0:31.9	from New England, and nearly three decades in the past.
0:35.0	But the long arm of justice knows no limits of distance or time.
0:41.0	DNA evidence reached across the farthest corners of the United States to implicate the alleged
0:48.8	killer of Sophie Sergi.
0:51.4	He was working as a nurse in Auburn, Maine.
0:55.0	The 2019 arrest of Stephen Downs seemed like the first sign of real closure for Sophie's family.
1:02.0	But as the trial proceedings play out in Alaska Superior
1:05.8	Court right now in January of 2022, what seemed like a clear answer on the surface gets more difficult to pin down each day.
1:16.8	I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the ongoing case of Sophie Sergi Part 1 on Dark Down East. One of my favorite things I've heard about Sophie Sergi is this.
1:42.8	Quote, she was only 4 foot 9, but she really made up for it in spirit and light, end quote.
1:50.4	Sophie Sergi was born in 1973 in the native village of Pitkis Point, Alaska, a territory of U-Pik peoples.
1:59.0	The rural community situated on the lower Yukon River had about 70 people living there when Sophie was born,
2:05.4	and the population is just 120 today.
2:08.9	Even from an early age, Sophie had a caring motherly instinct that made her a rock for her family.
2:17.2	Sophie helped run the household with her mother, Elena, and cared for her little brother
2:21.3	Stephen when he was born.
2:23.6	Her friends say she had a quirky sense of humor
	...

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