John Dahlquist Indicted for 2009 Anchorage Murder

From the Attorney General’s Office:

April 24, 2024 (Anchorage, AK) -- Today, an Anchorage grand jury indicted 56-year-old John Dahlquist of Anchorage on three counts of second-degree murder. Dahlquist is charged with shooting and killing 76-year-old Sang Il Chun on December 15, 2009, in Anchorage.

Earlier this month, Dahlquist contacted the Anchorage Police Department with information about a cold case homicide. After further investigation by the Anchorage Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, Dahlquist confessed to entering the Inlet Inn in the early morning hours of December 15, 2009, and robbing the front desk clerk at gunpoint. Dahlquist shot both the front desk clerk and Chun, a bystander, during the robbery. Chun died of his injuries. The case was investigated by the Anchorage Police Department in 2009, but efforts to identify the suspect at the time were unsuccessful and the case went cold.  The statute of limitations for robbery and assault expires after ten years, and due to the passage of time, the state is precluded from charging Dahlquist with crimes related to the alleged robbery or shooting of the front desk clerk.

The Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions presented the case to the grand jury. If convicted at trial, Dahlquist faces a sentence of up to 99 years imprisonment.

These charges are only allegations and are not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Dahlquist is currently in the custody of the Department of Corrections. Bail is set at $100,000 cash performance, $50,000 cash appearance, plus electronic monitoring by the Department of Corrections Pre-Trial Enforcement Division.

Related to APD Case 09-61508