Kendall Rae

No shock there, but even though the suspicion was, you know, strongly on Owens at this point, after his interview especially, they didn't have enough yet to arrest him, so they had to let him go.

Instead, he returned to Nome, and the police department placed him on administrative leave.

But the investigation was still ramping up and the ABI actually received some very significant information from Owen's ex-wife.

She stated that one afternoon he randomly called her up to say that he would have to drop their son off with her earlier than expected because he had been called into work to assist in looking for a missing girl.

And this call took place before Sonia was even reported missing.

So he shouldn't have even known about it.

Big red flag there.

And then another woman calls up investigators and tells them that Owens was asking her to leave Alaska with him.

So they're like, oh, shit.

OK, before this guy can potentially flee, we need to issue an arrest warrant.

And they did.

And then finally, on October 25th, 2003, Matt Owens was charged with first degree murder.

And while this was a big step forward, it of course didn't mean the investigation was complete.

And people did keep coming forward with new information.

Just a few days after his arrest, multiple women came forward with disturbing accounts of their experiences with Matt Owens.

And just as I explained it was sort of known information that he would pick up his friends in a squad car, it was also, I guess, sort of an open secret that he was picking up women while he was on his shift.

And he was also coercing and assaulting them.

In one account, he had arrested a woman and then sexually assaulted her when she was in the patrol car.

Another woman said that after he had forced himself on her, he told her that if she tried to tell anyone...

No one would believe a drunk native woman over a police officer.