Kendall Rae

And they had plenty of good reasons for that.

I mean, for one, because of Sonia's murder, it really shed a light on the lack of police resources that were being put towards sexual assault cases.

I mean, the fact that multiple women had reported Owens and nothing was done about it was shocking to people.

And between 2008 and 2017, the Nome Police Department received 372 calls about sexual assault, but only 30 of those led to any arrests.

And of course, this case drew a lot of attention to the horrible reality

of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, which is a massive problem in Alaska.

Sonya's story really highlights that reality and the reality that the police don't always protect everyone they're supposed to be serving.

Matt Owens used his uniform to get what he wanted, and he didn't care about anyone he hurt, even though he took an oath to do the exact opposite.

But thankfully, there were some positive changes that came from Sonia's case.

In 2007, the Sonia Ivanoff law was passed in Alaska, which mandated that any police officer who was convicted of murder would automatically receive a sentence of 99 years.

And I would hope that most of you would agree with me

that this should be implemented in all states.

In fact, it should be implemented all over the world because police officers, at the end of the day, should be held accountable for betraying their communities.

And maybe if they were, you know...

afraid to have to face harsher consequences, maybe it would put a stop to some of the abuse of power that we see all the time.

Sonya might have gotten in his car because she felt that an officer was safe to be around, when Matt Owens was the exact opposite, and that is a sad reality.

And because he is a selfish, sick monster,

The world lost an amazing young girl with so much potential and so much life ahead of her.

And it is just beyond tragic.

And there is no reason for it.