Alaska's Missing Murder Data: Invisible Investigators Strike Again

In Alaska, where Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have been promising to solve the mystery of murdered and missing Indigenous people since time immemorial, the state famously cannot deliver one simple thing: a list of homicide victims. Charlene Aqpik Apok’s nonprofit, Data for Indigenous Justice, had to build its own database starting in 2020 after realizing no government agency was counting names her organizers wanted to read at rallies. The state’s Department of Public Safety – led by spokesman Austin McDaniel and Commissioner James Cockrell – rejected requests in June 2025, claiming it’d take 'several hours' of manual labor that apparently overworked their invisible hamster on a wheel. Even with just about 22 murders investigated annually by state troopers handling 38% of the cases, the data remains locked tighter than Dunleavy’s public responses. Meanwhile, Anchorage reverses a policy hiding victim names but Alaska’s state power apparently can’t muster a simple checkbox query. The kicker? McDaniel claims Alaska is a 'leader in data transparency' – proving once again that denial is Alaska’s coldest crime scene.

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Alaska’s state police treat homicide lists like limited edition collectibles – so rare even Sen. Murkowski and Gov. Dunleavy can’t find one. Data for Indigenous Justice had to DIY because Alaska’s ‘leader in transparency’ wears an invisibility cloak instead of a badge.

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