Sonya Ivanoff was a rising star in Alaska’s small, tight-knit community. A talented basketball player with dreams of a college career, she had her whole future ahead of her—until she was found murdered at just 19 years old. In the isolated town of Nome, investigators were left with few clues and fewer answers, as the case spiraled into a labyrinth of conflicting leads. In today’s episode, we explore the haunting mystery behind Sonya’s death and the unsettling questions it raises about power and justice in America.
Please be aware that today’s episode contains references to sexual assault.
A full transcript of this episode is available here.
Action Items Related to Today’s Episode:
Start by visiting the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center. Under the resources tab on their website, they provide a list of MMIW Resources, including an action plan and toolkit for Alaska Native Communities. You can learn more about their work and support through a donation at aknwrc.org.
Since Sonya was working in Nome with hopes to soon begin her college career, I wanted to also highlight the American Indian College Fund. You can learn more about their work and support via donation at collegefund.org.
If you want to further engage with MMIW stories, I highly recommend you check out the other show I host, called The Vanishing Point. From the creators of Up and Vanished, The Vanishing Point transports listeners to the last known location shared by multiple missing individuals, uncovering new details about their cases and the area’s significance. In the first six-episode installment, available now, we’ll take you to Hoopa, California, home of the Hoopa Valley tribe. Located in the Pacific Northwest, this area is known for its breathtaking landscapes, but there’s more to it than just its natural beauty. It holds a haunting history of numerous unsolved missing person cases. Join me and the Up and Vanished team as we explore what makes this tribal land…a vanishing point.
Audio Used:
Dateline NBC: A Walk in the Rain.
Sources Used:
The New Yorker: Is There Hope For The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women?, by Rachel Monroe.
Association of Indian Affairs: Violence Against Native Peoples.
Dateline NBC: A Walk in the Rain.
NBC: Remembering Sonya Ivanoff.
The Crime Wire: An Alaskan Mystery: The Missing 24 of Nome, by Dean Traylor.
CBC: In Nome, Alaska, review of sexual assault cold cases hits a wall, by The Associated Press.
