AK AK - Justina Kunayak, 45, Nome, 18 November 1990

[Sleuth91]

THE CHARLEY PROJECT

JUSTINA BEATRICE KUNAYAK

Kunayak, circa 1990

• Missing Since: 11/18/1990
• Missing From: Nome, Alaska
• Classification: Missing
• Sex: Female
• Race: Native American
• Date of Birth: 08/22/1945 (75)
• Age: 45 years old
• Height and Weight: Unknown
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Native American female. Black hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance
Kunayak was last seen in Nome, Alaska on November 18, 1990. She was walking down Front Street near the Nome Nugget Inn at the time. She has never been heard from again.

Approximately 20 members of Alaska's Native American community have vanished or died under questionable circumstances in the Nome area since the 1960s. Authorities opened a probe into their deaths and disappearances, but they do not believe a serial predator was involved.

Investigating Agency

• Alaska State Troopers 907-269-5058

Source Information

• The Nome Nugget
• The Doe Network

 

[Dylansmom08]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

I can't find anything new for her but i did find a NamUs case file. While doing some searching around what is going on in Nome, Alaska? So many missing persons from there and I found 2 unidentified women that were found there in 2003 at the court house. Don't know why they would be keeping skeletons at a court house unless that is where the ME's office is located.

 

[Sleuth91]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

I can't find anything new for her but i did find a NamUs case file. While doing some searching around what is going on in Nome, Alaska? So many missing persons from there and I found 2 unidentified women that were found there in 2003 at the court house. Don't know why they would be keeping skeletons at a court house unless that is where the ME's office is located.

That is odd that skeletons were found at a court house.

I read an article a while back about bones from the ME's office in Detroit ending up at detectives houses because of the overwhelming amount of unidentified decedents and there not being enough space at the ME's office for all the remains.

It also talked about bodies being in the wrong crypts. They'd be looking for one body to exhume and find a different body than they were looking for. Then later on, they'd end up finding the body they were looking for in a different crypt.

I'll have to see if I can find the article. It was interesting and very sad.

 

[Sleuth91]

@Dylansmom08 here is the article I mentioned.

No One Really Knows What to Do With All of America’s Unclaimed Corpses

When you mentioned the skeletons being found at the courthouse in Nome (where Justina went missing from), I immediately thought of that article.

 

[Pennysmom1]

Justina is still missing

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1593dfak.html

https://mccmeetingspublic.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/nomealaska-meet-17411ccd840a472192f4b01bbfb1274b/ITEM-Attachment-001-084020db0de24ad29050027fd47ca73d.pdf

Private Investigations for the Missing

On This Date Justina Beatrice Kunayak, 45 years old, vanished on November 18, 1990 from Nome, Alaska. She was last seen walking in the vicinity of Front Street by the Nome Nugget Inn. Justina is an...

www.facebook.com

Here is a little bit of extra information, what she was wearing when she disappeared:

<<Justina Beatrice Kunayak, 45 years old, vanished on November 18, 1990 from Nome, Alaska. She was last seen walking in the vicinity of Front Street by the Nome Nugget Inn. Justina is an Indigineous woman with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a light colored parka with a polar bear ruff.>>

 

[Pennysmom1]

5/12/23

http://www.nomenugget.net/news/%E2%80%98no-more-stolen-relatives%E2%80%99-nome-marks-mmip-awareness-day5/12/23

<<‘I couldn’t believe that nobody cared’

Etta Tall remembered her mother, Justina Kunayak, who went missing in November 1990, at age 45. Kunayak was passing through Nome after a doctor’s appointment in Anchorage. She never came back home to Little Diomede and was last seen on Front Street wearing a parka with a ruff. Tall said her family had no support to look for her mother. They went all over Nome showing pictures of her mother in her parka, but they had no help from Nome Police Department, she said.

“One day the police stopped me and my sister and asked us what we’re doing,” Tall said. “We said we’re looking for our mom. She never came home and it’s been a week.”

She said the police took her mom’s picture and said they would help, but when the FBI came, they didn’t find any photo in the NPD file.
“I couldn’t believe that nobody cared,” Tall said.

She told the audience how terrible it was to go back home without her mom being there and how her father would wake up crying. “It was so painful to go through,” she said. More than 30 years later, Tall still hopes for answers.

“I never lost hope that someday she will be found,” Tall said. “I pray someday that a person will confess or say something.”>>