Two Juneau teenagers reported missing early on Monday, Aug. 31, were found dead in the woods that same afternoon, both with what police described as gunshot wounds.
The Juneau Police Department said the bodies of Leotis Phillips, 16, and Zoey Clark, 16, were located at about 2:25 p.m. in a wooded area above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway. A firearm was found at the scene.
The department gave few other details. In a release, it said preliminary information indicated both teens died from gunshot wounds and that their bodies would be sent to Anchorage for examination.
“Preliminary information indicates that both juveniles died from gunshot wounds. A firearm was located at the scene,” the release stated. “Their bodies will be sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage for autopsy.”
Deputy Chief Krag Campbell issued the statement. Police said next of kin had been notified. They also stressed that the account was based on a preliminary investigation and could change as the case develops.
Reported missing hours before they were found
The search that ended in the woods started before sunrise. Phillips was reported missing from his home on Kanata Street at about 5:52 a.m. Clark was reported missing from her home on Teal Street at about 8:49 a.m.
Both homes are in the Mendenhall Valley, a residential stretch of Alaska’s capital city. Police said the two were believed to be together when they left.
The timeline is short and grim. From the first missing-person report at dawn to the discovery of the bodies at 2:25 p.m., fewer than nine hours passed. An update to the police release went out at about 5:30 p.m. confirming the teens had been found dead.
Police warned the public not to approach them
When police asked residents for help finding the pair, the appeal carried a caution that stood out. Officers said the teens might have a gun with them, and they told the public to keep their distance.
“Because the juveniles may have access to a firearm, members of the public should not approach them or attempt to contact them,” the release stated. That same concern, that the two were believed to be armed, ran through the department’s early advisory during the search.
Police have not said publicly how the two came to have the firearm, or how the shooting unfolded. A gun was recovered where the bodies were found, but the department has not laid out the sequence of events.
The spot off Glacier Highway
The teens were found on a hillside above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway, a coastal road that runs out of downtown Juneau. The area sits in the Lemon Creek neighborhood, a working part of the city rather than a remote wilderness.
The wooded patch is near an Alaska Department of Transportation facility and the Alaska Marine Highway System call center. It is also close to Switzer Village Mobile Home Park.
In other words, this was not a hard-to-reach corner of the backcountry. The bodies were found in trees a short distance from roads, offices and homes, in a part of town people pass through every day.
The investigation is still open
The bodies of both teens were sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage for autopsy. Those results will decide the official cause and manner of death, which police have not released.
As of the police statements, no ruling on how the two died had been made public. No suspect has been named, and the department has not said whether it is looking for anyone else.
Investigators are still working through the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Police repeated that everything in their release came from a preliminary look at the scene and is subject to change, which is standard language in the first hours of a case like this.
What that leaves is a set of confirmed facts and a lot of unanswered questions. Two 16-year-olds left their homes on the same morning, were believed to be together, were thought to have a firearm, and were found dead of gunshot wounds hours later with a gun beside them. The pieces connecting those points have not been spelled out by police.
A community left grieving
Juneau is a small city, and news of two dead teenagers moved fast. The day after the bodies were found, more than 150 friends, family members and teachers gathered for a candlelight vigil at Clark’s high school, close to where the two were found.
Among those who spoke was Ariah Clark, a cousin of Zoey Clark. The crowd’s size, in a city Juneau’s size, gives some sense of how many people the two teenagers touched.
The Juneau School District said it planned to make counseling and support services available to students and staff affected by the deaths. Schools often become the first place classmates process a loss like this, and the district moved to have help on hand.
The Zach Gordon Youth Center, a Juneau spot where Phillips reportedly spent time, posted on Facebook that it was saddened by the loss of the two teens and pointed people toward support. Places that knew the teenagers, not just the school, were absorbing the news.
The police department, for its part, closed its release the way it opened its search, by addressing the people who knew Phillips and Clark. It extended condolences to the teens’ families, friends, classmates and others affected by the loss.
For now, that is where things stand. Two names, two ages, two homes on two streets, and a hillside off Glacier Highway where a morning search ended. The rest waits on the medical examiner in Anchorage and on an investigation that Juneau police say is still ongoing.
