Sonya Dora Nitcuk Ivanoff

Deadly force

Ivanoff disappeared from downtown Nome and was found days later at an abandoned gold mine three miles north of town, dead, naked except for one sock, shot in the back of the head and physically battered. Suspicion fell on an on-duty Nome officer. His two murder trials resulted in a 101-year sentence, a state Sonya Ivanoff Act mandating at least 99 years for similar incidents, and attention to the many other disappeared Alaskans.