We've posted an updated version of this story on our homepage.

From Casey Grove and Kyle Hopkins --

James Koenig, father of missing 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig, talks with reporters today in Anchorage:

“I want to ask for her captors, that they would please send my daughter home," Koenig said. "I will give you anything in this world."

Koenig is offering a $12,500 reward for his daughter's safe return. Donations to the reward fund can be made at Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union, Koenig said.

Security camera footage shows Samantha being abducted by an armed man Wednesday night from a Midtown coffee stand, police say.

“I don’t know if my daughter’s fed. Being taken care of. If she’s still alive," her father said.

Video by Casey Grove, Anchorage Daily News.

From Kyle Hopkins and Casey Grove in Anchorage --

Update:

Anchorage police identified the man who died this morning under "suspicious circumstances" as 50-year-old Raymond Sais.

Police say more information will be released as it becomes available.

Original post:

Anchorage homicide detectives are investigating a suspicious death discovered early this morning at a South Anchorage mobile home, the police department says.

Anchorage police are warning today of a phone scam targeting hotel guests. Here's the announcement sent to reporters:

Hotel Credit Card Phone Scam

The Anchorage Police Department has received 2 complaints regarding a new scam which targets hotel guests. The scammer calls a hotel guest and tells the guest that there was a problem running his credit card number when checking into the hotel. The scammer then asks for the guest’s credit card information over the phone. Obviously the scammer just wants the information to use to run up charges on the victim’s credit card bill.

One potential victim got a call from his credit card company on his cell phone while he was speaking to the “manager” on the hotel phone. The credit card company asked if at that moment he was trying to purchase groceries in Buffalo, NY. The scam didn’t work that time but there may be other victims out there who need to contact police.

The public is urged to never give out personal information to anyone with whom you have not personally initiated contact and of whose identity you are not certain.

If you get suspicious message such as this, check it out with the hotel personnel face to face. Travelers especially need to be wary and keep an eye on their credit card statements.

From Kyle Hopkins and Casey Grove –

A Selawik woman faces disorderly conduct charges for ranting and playing music last night over the VHF radio, troopers say.

The report:

Location: Selawik
Type: Disorderly Conduct:

At approximately 2130 hours on 1-5-12, Florence Mitchell (50) of Selawik was reported by numerous villagers that she was using the local VHF village radio ranting, cursing and playing music not appropriate for children in the village to be exposed to having to listen to for almost two hours.
She was contacted by the Village Police and troopers at her residence and subsequently discovered to be intoxicated from consumption of homebrew. Three young children were inside the home and were taken to a family nearby for the night. Mitchell was charged with disorderly conduct. Alcohol was a factor.

In many villages, VHFs are as common as phones and a must-have communications tool for tracking everything from search-and-rescue efforts to school activities.

But inappropriate music?

We called the Selawik store, where a resident said the woman had been intoxicated, missing her dead grandparents and playing Hank Williams, who reminded her of them.

Troopers later clarified that the music selection included "rap music laced with vulgar language." That's according to an email from agency spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.

"(Mitchell) would also get on the radio and talk about a dead family member, use obscenities and call people names," Ipsen wrote. "She did this on and off for about two hours. Numerous people complained about it. She was cited and the radio was seized. This is not the first time someone has been cited for this in Selawik for doing this."

While Selawik has, at times, had little or no police presence, Trooper Capt. Barry Wilson said the state this year is planning to station two troopers in the village to help with law enforcement in the region.

Kyle Dwiggins, who was being sought by police for allegedly bilking victims out of some $130,000 in two separate scams , was taken into custody in a Midtown parking lot Thursday night, police reported this morning.

Dwiggins, the 26-year-old owner of a company called Sooner Repairs, is accused of failing to complete home-repair work for which he'd been paid and for stealing rental deposits for an apartment that wasn't his.

Here's a statement issued this morning by Anchorage police:

On December 22, 2011, at about 9:15 p.m., Kyle Dwiggins was taken into custody without incident in the parking lot of a strip mall located at 510 West Tudor Road by members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force. His capture ended a week-long manhunt for Dwiggins who was wanted on multiple charges of theft and scheme to defraud.

The United States Marshals Task Force is a joint task force that apprehends fugitives in Alaska. It is made up of members from the U.S. Marshals Service, Alaska State Troopers and the Anchorage Police Department.

Kyle Dwiggins (Anchorage Police Department)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A reported stabbing Sunday in the Lower Yukon River community of Mountain Village left three people wounded and investigators searching for answers, troopers say.

All three people involved in the knife attack were “highly intoxicated” from drinking homebrew, troopers say. A ground storm and high winds delayed troopers, who were unable to arrive in the village and investigate until a day after the assault was reported.

It's unclear how long the trio's wounds went untreated.

Troopers have released few details about the attack, first reported 6 p.m. Sunday. No one involved has been publicly identified. Troopers say all three live in the same household.

“We know there are three wounded, but we don’t know who the aggressor is,” said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.

Two of the people involved in the melee were flown to Bethel Monday for treatment, troopers say.

A woman who answered the phone number listed for the Mountain Village police department said there was no public safety department and referred questions to troopers. Calls to the trooper post in nearby Saint Mary's went unanswered.

From Kyle Hopkins and Casey Grove in Anchorage --

An alleged robber and getaway driver are now charged with manslaughter after a homeowner killed their accomplices, police say.

The trouble began Nov. 10, when three people entered a trailer on the 700 block of Muldoon Road, demanding money and drugs, according to police. The man inside shot and killed two of the 19-year-old robbers, police say.

Now the alleged accomplices of the two men shot and killed face charges for both the robbery and the deaths. The robbers believed there was a marijuana grow at the trailer, the indictment says.

Read the charges here.

An Anchorage grand jury on Thursday indicted Brian Albert Pfister, 18, and Ursula Evelyn Roberta Pico, 21, for:

-- Two counts of manslaughter
-- First-degree robbery
-- Conspiracy to commit robbery
-- First-degree burglary

Police say Pfister was the robber who escaped when his partners were killed. Pico drove the getaway car, police say. She also is charged with evidence tampering for trying to hide the vehicle.

The resident who fired the shots, 55-year-old Larry James, has not been charged. A prosecutor said Friday that a police investigation showed James was clearly within his rights under Alaska law in defending himself with deadly force.

Police confirmed they dismantled a marijuana grow operation at James' trailer sometime after the shooting. Prosecutors are still considering charges for James related to the marijuana grow, said Assistant District Attorney James Fayette.

Here's the news release police sent to reporters this morning:

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

This today from Anchorage police as they investigate the Thursday morning gas station shooting:

Subject: Person of Interest in Convenience Store Shooting

Anchorage Police are asking for help from the public in identifying a person of interest in a shooting that took place at the Holiday Convenience Store, located at 68th and Lake Otis, at about 6 a.m. on December 8, 2011.

t

Note to readers: This report has been replaced with an updated story on our homepage .

In this clip, Esther Stauffer, aunt of hit-and-run victim Hubert Tunuchuk, talks about the family's reaction to the death and to Wednesday's arrest.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A man who once won a $575,000 settlement claiming a trooper used excessive force in his arrest is back in trouble with the law. He escaped Sunday from a village jail, troopers say.

It’s the second time Kevin J. Patrick, 39, has been accused of fleeing the Alakanuk jail in Western Alaska in the past nine years. Both times he was accused of escaping during a bathroom break.

UPDATE: Troopers have identified the man killed in the shooting as Ronald D. Gunter, 61 of Talkeetna.

ORIGINAL POST:

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A man was shot and killed during a fight Sunday night north of Willow, Alaska State Troopers say.

The confrontation was first reported at 8:41 p.m. at a home on Susitna Drive, near mile 91 of the Parks Highway, troopers said. Investigators believe two men were fighting at the home when one produced a small-caliber pistol.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Jack Shay

Former Ketchikan City Councilman John "Jack" W. Shay was charged with an additional 80 counts of child pornography today, police say.

Two of the charges stem from a homemade video in which at least one scene involves Shay, 80, and an unidentified pre-pubescent girl, according to a statement today from the Ketchikan Police Department.

Javier Antonio Martinez

From Casey Grove in Anchorage --

Police say they have discovered the true identity of a man charged with murder in the shooting death of his former supervisor at the Millennium Alaskan Hotel on Oct. 29.

A routine fingerprint check showed that the suspect, thought to be 45-year-old Victor Rodriguez Flores, was actually a convicted felon named Javier Antonio Martinez, 47, who had once been deported from the United States, according to Anchorage police.

An Anchorage grand jury on Tuesday indicted Martinez on one count of first-degree murder for killing Kerry Fadely, 55.

Martinez, previously referred to as Flores, was fired from his serving job at the hotel Oct. 21 after a dispute or argument, police said. According to charging documents filed against Flores, he returned about a week later to confront his former supervisor, 55-year-old Kerry Fadely, whom he then shot with a .45-caliber handgun, police said.

The hotel and a section of Spenard Road were closed for more than four hours as SWAT teams scoured the hotel and surrounding area for the shooting suspect, who surrendered later after arriving home from a bar in a taxi, police said.

It was unclear Wednesday morning what previous felony crime Martinez had committed, when it occurred or where, said police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker. Alaska court records do not show any felony charges for a man named Javier Martinez.

Parker said he did not know Martinez's country of origin. Detectives were looking into the details, he said.

"They're still pulling all that together," Parker said.

Martinez was apparently an illegal alien using the false name to work at the hotel, Parker said. The false identity did not appear to be the reason the hotel fired Martinez, Parker said.

"Was that the subject of the dispute? No," Parker said. "I don’t think they knew it."

Martinez's true identity was discovered as detectives and a state prosecutor prepared to take the case before a grand jury, Parker said. Fingerprints from the man thought to be Flores matched prints in a national database, showing he was in fact Martinez, Parker said.

"That's just one of the steps they take," Parker said. "It's happened before."

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A man who blasted bear spray into a police officer's face during a traffic stop late Saturday night in Midtown has been arrested on felony eluding and assault charges.

A man accused of trying to run down an officer about two hours later in South Anchorage is under arrest too.

That according to Anchorage police, who initially thought the two men -- who look alike and both had warrants out for their arrest -- were the same guy. All told, four people have been arrested following a sequence of violent traffic stops and hot pursuits in Anchorage that included an officer firing on, but missing, one of the suspects.

It's a story of manhunts and mistaken identity that is turning out to be more complicated than police first suspected.

“One fled the police after bear spraying the officer and the other one fled police when they stopped him because they thought he was the other guy," said Lt. Dave Parker, a police spokesman.

Confused?

Here's a timeline of the arrests that police sent to reporters this morning. We'll update with more information as it becomes available:

From Casey Grove in Anchorage --

Anchorage police sent this video to reporters today. It shows a driver on the Glenn Highway early Tuesday losing control of his pickup, which then hit a light pole and flipped over.

The driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Despite running over the downed light pole, a police spokeswoman says the patrol car was not damaged.

Here's a press release police sent to reporters just after noon today:

Subject: Police Car’s Dash Cam Captures Rollover
Case Number: 11-50768

On November 1, 2011, just after 6 a.m., inbound traffic on the Glenn Highway was slowed for over two hours due to a vehicle striking a light pole which fell into the right-hand lanes of traffic, narrowly missing APD Traffic Officer Rick Dykstra’s patrol car. Attached is a video of the officer’s dash camera which captured the incident.

The vehicle which struck the light pole was a Chevy S-10 pickup truck, driven by Dale Cooper, 30, of Eagle River. Cooper was travelling inbound on the Glenn Highway, just before the Highland Road exit, when he lost control of the pickup. The truck slid across several lanes of traffic, went into the ditch on the north side of the highway, struck the light pole, and then flipped onto its roof before coming to rest. Officer Dykstra was approximately 200 feet behind Cooper and was preparing to pull over to assist the driver when the light pole crashed down directly in front of him. Cooper was trapped upside down in his vehicle until Officer Dykstra climbed in and pulled him out.

Medics transported Cooper to a local hospital however his injuries did not appear life threatening.

Although Officer Dykstra did not avoid running over the light pole, the police vehicle was not damaged. No citations have been issued.

This has been updated with a story on our homepage.

Saturday morning update:

From Casey Grove in Anchorage --

Police have arrested a man for a fatal stabbing Friday night in South Anchorage.

Joshua Wagner, 35, was jailed for allegedly killing his 34-year-old neighbor, Norman Dennis, police said Saturday.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A 31-year-old Anchorage man shot at pursuing police officers after pistol-whipping a relative early this morning, police say.

This today from the Anchorage Police Department:

Subject: Shots Fired After Robbery

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A grand jury indictment handed down today in the case of an Oct. 10 gun battle outside a Muldoon bar reveals new details about what police think happened that night.

The indictment accuses Lee Chee Chang of not only gunning down Emilio Ramirez outside J.J.'s Lounge, but also shooting two others who survived.

"He shot both of them, and both of them were unarmed," said Lt. David Parker, a police spokesman.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

An Oregon man snuck about a pound of weed to Alaska on the ferry from Bellingham and was arrested Sunday in Ketchikan, troopers said.

George Marlin, 24, was carrying 15 ounces of marijuana with a street value of $11,325, troopers said. An un-named Juneau woman accused of carrying an ounce of marijuana also may face charges.

Here's the report from today's trooper logs:

Location: Ketchikan

Vaituu Motuga, 41, faces five felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A man who police say has sexually abused one or more children has jumped bail and may be trying to flee the country, Anchorage police said today.

Vaituu Motuga, 41, faces five felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, court records show. Motuga made his first court appearance on the charges Aug. 12.