Yvonne Krumrey

Juneau Animal Rescue has too many cats.

JAR can comfortably house 40 cats and the rescue is well over capacity, according to Executive Director Rick Driscoll. 

“We’ve got a lot of cats, and we need people to adopt them,” he said. “And we’re at cat-pacity — which I hate that word, but it’s catchy.”

Many cats are being temporarily placed with fosters, but Driscoll said he’s hoping people will adopt them. 

He said cats tend to give birth in the warmer months, and the rescue ends up trying to adopt out the many cats they end up with each summer. There’s been an overflow of cats each summer Driscoll has been with JAR. 

JAR is raising money for a new facility that would meet its needs. Until then, Driscoll said people can help prevent the influx of animals by sterilizing their pets. 

“It’s a great opportunity to remind the community that you know spaying and neutering your pet is not only important to prevent overpopulation,” he said. “But it also has a lot of medical benefits associated with it.”

JAR offers low-cost spay and neuter services for those who qualify. 

Content warning: this story contains details about suspected sexual violence against women.

On a cold afternoon in January 2023, Tanya Ulrich opened her door to see a Juneau police officer. He told her that her sister, Isabelle Sam, was found dead in a van outside of a local grocery store.

“I asked if we can go and see her really quick, make sure that it is her – because I didn’t, I didn’t want to believe it,” Ulrich said. “And they said that you can’t come see her.”

Ulrich wouldn’t get to see her sister’s body for more than a week.

“I called again the next day at the morgue, and they said they were already sending her up to Anchorage for the autopsy,” she said.

The state medical examiner in Anchorage found the cause of death was an overdose from fentanyl and alcohol. Sam’s death was classified as an accident. The police said there wasn’t enough evidence to make a case against anyone.

Now, two years later, her family still has questions about the circumstances surrounding her death. After seeing the police report, they worry she may have been the victim of a crime. 

This family’s story isn’t uncommon. Alaska Native families often carry the burden of unanswered questions when their loved ones die of unnatural causes.  

For Sam’s family, questions began to surface almost immediately, when authorities released her body. 

“We didn’t get to see her until the day we had her funeral over in Sitka, and that’s when we realized that she had some bruises on her – on her face,” Ulrich said. “It really, really upset me and her kids.”

The state medical examiner’s report on Sam’s death says Sam had “contusions” on her face and neck, but those injuries didn’t cause her death. Later, the family saw autopsy photos and Ulrich said there were also bruises all over her body.

Isabelle Sam’s death is similar to that of many Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, or MMIP, cases where the family’s suspicions go unresolved because authorities don’t have enough evidence to investigate further, or make arrests. 

Sam was Lingít – Kaagwaantaan from Sitka. She was a mother and a grandmother. She had been unhoused and struggling with addiction for some time. Ulrich said Sam experienced domestic violence from partners in the past, and she was always worried about her. 

Ulrich said her sister loved going berry picking and playing softball. She said Sam always made things fun.

“You could really just see her out on the dance floor, like dancing away,” she said. “Doesn’t really matter which song. She was just fun-loving.”

Ulrich lost another sibling shortly after Sam’s death, and she was juggling multiple jobs and a child with special needs. But she couldn’t stop thinking about her sister. This past February, she requested the police report from the investigation into Sam’s death. 

In the report were details that made her feel even more uneasy. For example, there were two men with Sam in the van when she died – and one of them told police the other was acting guilty. When police saw her body, she was partially undressed.

The medical examiner ordered a sexual assault examination. The nurse who filed the report said there were signs of sexual assault after death on Sam’s body. But a doctor with the medical examiner’s office told police he wasn’t sure of that. 

Though the medical examiner’s report determined Sam’s death was accidental, Ulrich says she sees enough suspicious details in the reports that she thinks a crime took place around her sister’s death. She’s read them over and over again. 

“I keep getting confused,” Ulrich said. “That’s why I keep rereading everything, seeing if I missed anything. Or, like, maybe it’ll make more sense. I put it down. Every time I look at it, like, there’s stuff that contradicts stuff, there’s stuff that don’t make sense.”

Juneau Deputy Police Chief Krag Campbell said the investigating officer for Sam’s case followed normal procedure, and that there wasn’t enough evidence in this case to proceed with any charges related to her death. 

Campbell said the medical examiner determines the official cause of death and that influences how an investigation will proceed. 

“We’re looking at them to say, like, is this suspicious in nature?” he said. 

Unless there is unmistakable evidence of a crime, he said.

“Outside of seeing a – during an investigation – seeing an obvious sign of something that would cause death, or someone saying, ‘I saw so-and-so kill them,’ you know, that type of stuff,” he said. 

In this case, the medical examiner’s office wouldn’t confirm to JPD that there were definite signs of assault on Sam’s body, despite contusions on her face and neck, and trauma to other areas of her body. 

Campbell confirmed that her case was taken to the prosecutor, but there wasn’t enough evidence to take it to trial. 

Now, Isabelle Sam’s family doesn’t know what to do with their questions. 

“That is unfortunately too common of an experience where families have followed every end that they can. They’ve done everything that they can,” said Aqpik Charlene Apok, founder of Data for Indigenous Justice.  

Apok’s nonprofit collects and publishes data about missing and murdered Indigenous people. Her database is different from what state authorities report. It includes cases that have been officially closed – ruled as suicides and accidents – where families think there is more to the story.

Apok said deaths like Sam’s often go without prosecution, even when the family thinks they should be taken to court. 

“We may not be seeing eye to eye, from family to prosecution or family and law enforcement,” she said. 

Apok said families often still have questions after authorities close their loved one’s case. 

“And that’s why we have awareness about this issue,” Apok said. “That’s why we’re trying to have systemic change. That’s why we’re trying to see patterns like that, so that we can identify, then, where is that gap? What is happening?”

The legal system may not be able to answer all of the questions Isabelle Sam’s family has about what happened in the last hours of her life. But there are structural disparities that affect Alaska Native people – stemming from generations of colonial violence – that could have contributed to her death in that van.

In 2022, Alaska Native people died from overdoses at more than three times the rate of white people in Alaska. 

Alaska Native people make up nearly half of the state’s unhoused population, while only making up 16% of the state’s population as a whole. 

Apok said families shouldn’t be left to question the circumstances around their loved one’s death. But many still do. 

“I call them survivor families,” she said. “They shouldn’t have to burden as much as they are, to carry it forward.”

And for Tanya Ulrich, the loss is still fresh. She read a message from Sam’s daughter, who lives in Sitka, that said what a good mom Sam was, how she always looked out for her kids.

“‘She made sure her kids were always safe and okay,’” Ulrich read. “‘She took care of us the best that she could.’”

A man originally charged with the 2022 murder of a Juneau woman is being released from prison after a Juneau court dismissed all charges against him on Monday. 

Anthony Michael Migliaccio was arrested two months after Faith Rogers was found dead on a popular Juneau hiking trail. He was charged with three counts of murder and one count of manslaughter.

Judge Marianna Carpeneti ruled that Migliaccio can be released from Goose Creek Correctional Center in Wasilla as of Monday. Migliaccio’s attorney, Nico Ambrose, was not immediately willing to answer questions about the decision.

Michelle Rogers, Faith’s sister, described her as a caring person who treated the people she worked with with empathy. Rogers was a substance use counselor in Juneau at the time of her death. Her sister said the family is upset by the court’s decision.

“My sister was a wonderful human being,” she said. “I mean, she tried to make the world a better place.”

A jury indicted Migliaccio on two counts of murder and one of manslaughter in 2022. Now, the court has dismissed those charges, citing “improper evidence.”

Rogers says she’s having trouble making sense of how the case reached this point.

“I just don’t understand how there is no physical evidence,” she said.

The court’s order says that exhibits submitted by Juneau police to the grand jury during the indictment process were based on hearsay, and the original indictments were based on improper evidence. 

She says her sister’s death and the subsequent court proceedings have hit her family hard. 

“It’s ripped our family apart, you know,” she said. “I mean, we used to be a really tight family, but this has kind of left everybody destroyed, to tell you the truth.”

In a Monday statement, District Attorney Whitney Bostick said the state would not refile charges against Migliaccio. 

“We fully recognize the weight of this decision and the impact it will have on the victim’s family, who continue to mourn the loss of their loved one—a victim of a tragic and senseless act,” it read.  “However our duty as prosecutors is to move forward with charges only when the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt.”

It said that the state no longer believes it can prove the case due to new evidence.

Correction: Migliaccio was charged, but not indicted, on the murder one charge.

This story has also been updated. 

Monday is Beth McEwen’s last day as Juneau’s municipal clerk. She’s retiring from the city clerk’s office after 25 years.

In that role, she’s overseen Juneau’s local elections, the workings of the Juneau Assembly and – occasionally – even performed marriages. She was also named Alaska’s municipal clerk of the year in 2023. 

KTOO sat down with her in the Assembly chambers at City Hall to talk about what she’s learned over the years.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Beth McEwen: I’m excited, nervous. Pinch me, I don’t know what’s really happening. 

Yvonne Krumrey: Yeah. I mean, you’ve been here for a while. 

Beth McEwen: Yeah, I started in the clerk’s office in 2000 – January of 2000 – so it’s been a minute. 

Yvonne Krumrey: How did you come into the clerk’s office? Was that something you always wanted to do?

Beth McEwen: When I was going to school and I was studying, I wanted to be somehow in public service. I knew that I always wanted to work with people, and that was my passion from the time I was a kid, you know. Never even heard of a municipal clerk before. 

I was a government geek from the time I was a kid. My very first time I ever appeared in the newspaper was as a two year old waving the American flag in a fourth of July parade. So I kind of came at it from a young age that I was always patriotic. 

I loved government and all things related to government. I’m sure that’s because my parents, you know, at an early age, indoctrinated me into everything about democracy and how it’s for the people, by the people and of the people. 

And when the clerk and the deputy clerk both resigned at the end of 1999 we were without a clerk and without a deputy clerk. And I had been working in the law department for a couple of years by then, and I thought, you know, I don’t know exactly what all the job duties are of a clerk, but it couldn’t be all that different from a legal secretary, so I applied, and rather than having a real job interview, the manager said, “When are you starting now?”

Yvonne Krumrey: I’m curious, what lessons have you learned in your time at the clerk? 

Beth McEwen: Oh, lots of lessons. When we first started in 2000—there’s a notice of public hearing requirement that the charter requires that neither one of us were fully aware of the requirement and how that played out. 

For the first three months of our tenure in the clerk’s office, we didn’t do it properly. So after three months, every single piece of legislation that the assembly had adopted, we had to readopt and go through kind of an omnibus meeting. I never forgot that lesson learned.

Just emphasized, if there is a notice of public hearing that needs to go out, we’re doing it. And those are just, you know, those are the kind of oops lessons that, once they’re learned the hard way, they stay learned. 

And then you pass those on to your successors and everyone else.

Yvonne Krumrey: Is there anything that you’ve seen change in Juneau that you’re especially like, proud of, or that you’re happy to have seen change or grow? 

Beth McEwen: I have seen a lot of change, but the one thing that I really am encouraged by is people in this community care about this community, and they care enough to run for office and serve in public, either elected or appointed office. We have over 230 board, commission, committee, volunteer members who serve in some way in our community, 

And those caring community members keep coming, you know, and we’re very fortunate that all.

Although I’ve seen lots of change in my tenure, I have seen the dedication of our fellow citizens, be part of the community and care enough to give back to our community as a whole. 

Yvonne Krumrey: My last question is, what do you plan to do next? 

Beth McEwen: I hop a plane and go to Europe for almost three months, four months, something like that. One of the first things I get to do is a five day immersion French cooking school. 

Oh, I guess the other thing that I am doing on that trip to Europe is I’ve always wanted to go to the International Institute, municipal clerks, International Symposium. And it happens to be in England in September, and I was already going to be there, so I’m going to go to a week long symposium as a retired clerk, because it was always during our election season. So it wasn’t like I was ever going to be able to go until I was retired.

Dozens of Juneau residents gathered outside U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office Friday to implore him to consider Alaskans’ reliance on Medicaid. 

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote soon on President Donald Trump’s megabill, which would limit Medicaid eligibility.

For many protestors, the threats to health care coverage were deeply personal. That’s the case for Kris Cheng, who held a homemade poster covered with photos of a boy, one where he is in a hospital. 

“It’s about my son and the fact that he’s on Medicaid after a severe traumatic brain injury,” she said. “And the fact that I’m scared it’s gonna be taken away.” 

Her son Henry is 23, and due to an accident nine years ago, he needs specialized care that he has to travel to Seattle for. Medicaid helps cover those visits, and without it, the costs would fall on their family.

“And without that, he can’t be independent,” Cheng said. “He needs these injections that he gets. He needs the specialized care for brain injury down there. When he doesn’t get it, he’s more susceptible to falls, which ends up costing everybody more money.” 

Cheng’s poster had the words “not a fraud” and “not a scammer” interlayed with the photos of Henry. She said that’s in response to messaging she’s heard from politicians about Medicaid recipients.  

“My son is not a waste, he’s not a fraud, he’s not an abuse of anything,” Cheng said. More than 200,000 Alaskans are covered by Medicaid and the equivalent program for children. The megabill, if passed, could make it harder for those recipients to continue receiving care, and some may lose insurance completely.

Huna Totem Corporation shareholders adopted open enrollment last week at the village corporation’s annual meeting. That means that lineal descendants of original shareholders can now enroll and receive their own shares in the corporation. 

The vote wasn’t close — 71% of voters approved opening enrollment to descendants.

“It’s a recognition that we’ve got a future generation of leaders that are ready to come in and put their fingerprints on the future of not only the company, but of our culture and our heritage,” said Huna Totem CEO Russell Dick. 

He said the board discussed opening enrollment for decades. 

“They just said, ‘Look, this is time to get this done.’ It’s been 50 years of ANCSA, and it’s time for us to recognize the future generation.”

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA, passed in 1971, creating the Alaska Native corporation system. It limited shareholders to those born before it became law — for Huna Totem, that was roughly 1,650 people. 

Until now, those original shareholders could gift shares to their family members or leave them to their descendants in their will. But often, their shares would be divided among multiple children, leaving younger generations with unequal shares to their parents and grandparents, Dick said.

“And for us to be able to come out and say, ‘you are a regular shareholder of this company, here’s what that means: you are the next generation of leaders for Huna Totem Corporation, the community of Hoonah,’ I think it’s a huge, huge thing,” he said.

Each descendant who enrolls will receive 100 shares, the same number as the original shareholders. Huna Totem did a study to see how many people qualify, and it estimated that 1,540 descendants of original Huna Totem shareholders are eligible.

Sealaska  — Southeast Alaska’s regional Alaska Native corporation — opened enrollment to descendants in 2007, and removed its blood quantum requirement that limited the enrollment of people with mixed heritage in 2022. Huna Totem may be the first village corporation in Southeast Alaska to open enrollment. 

Several corporations throughout Alaska have made similar moves in recent years.