# Ep: 107 | The Murder of Sophie Sergie | Genetic Genealogy Solves 28-year-old Alaskan Cold Case | Murder Unscripted

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/murder-unscripted-6928259/ep-107-the-murder-of-sophie-sergie-genetic-genealogy-solves-28-year-old-alaskan-cold-case-murder-unscripted
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/murder-unscripted-6928259/ep-107-the-murder-of-sophie-sergie-genetic-genealogy-solves-28-year-old-alaskan-cold-case-murder-unscripted.md
Podcast: [Murder Unscripted](https://stenobird.com/podcast/murder-unscripted-6928259)
Published: 2026-06-09T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/murderunscripted/2883082
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/content.rss.com/episodes/273043/2883082/murderunscripted/2026_06_04_15_40_58_0fa6cf8a-644a-4067-8ffe-cda3e8fbaa1d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/murder-unscripted-6928259/episodes/ep-107-the-murder-of-sophie-sergie-genetic-genealogy-solves-28-year-old-alaskan-cold-case-murder-unscripted
Duration seconds: 3921

## Resource

Alaskan Sophie Sergie came from a remote Yupik village of 70 people. She was going to be the first in her family to graduate college. The last thing she told her family was a promise to bring her little brother a brand new kite. She never came home. On April 25th, 1993, Sophie Sergie was found violently murdered in a University of Alaska Fairbanks dorm bathroom. Her case went cold, and it stayed that way for more than a quarter century, until a woman uploaded her DNA to an ancestry site and unknowingly pointed investigators straight at her nephew, Steven Downs, who had been quietly living as a nurse in Maine the entire time. Ed covers Sophie's emotional story, the 28-year cold case, and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally brought justice. Ep. 107 | Collegiate Crimes Block | Murder Unscripted | June 2026 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-unscripted/id1750146409 https://open.spotify.com/show/2AUGh12ei1wk8x7CvcX9qH

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