Jan 7 2022
Auburn man’s murder trial in Alaska ‘cold case’ scheduled next week - Lewiston Sun Journal
''The trial of an Auburn man charged in the sexual assault and murder of an Alaskan woman 28 years ago is expected to get underway Monday with jury selection in Fairbanks.''
Steven Downs appears in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn in March 2019 for an extradition hearing. His trial in the 1993 murder of an Alaskan woman is scheduled to begin next week.
Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal file
Steven H. Downs, 47, is charged in the April 25, 1993, slaying of Sophie Sergie, 20, of Pitkas Point, Alaska.
Downs had been a student at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks at the time and lived in the dorm where Sergie’s body was found. Investigators said she had been visiting a friend at that dorm when her body was discovered.
Investigators said Sergie was shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber gun, stabbed in the cheek and eye, struck with a blunt instrument, gagged with a ligature and shocked with a stun gun.''