S1: E26– Someone Is Getting Away with Murder, Part 1

Summary

American Homicide: S1:E26 – Someone Is Getting Away with Murder, Part 1

Release Date: April 17, 2025
Host: Sloane Glass
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts

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Introduction to the Case

In the gripping first part of the two-part series, "Someone Is Getting Away with Murder," host Sloane Glass delves into the mysterious and unsettling case of Bonnie Craig, a bright and active 18-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska. The episode meticulously outlines the sequence of events leading up to Bonnie's untimely death and the ensuing investigation that spanned over a decade.

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Relocating to Anchorage

Karen Foster, Bonnie’s mother, made a significant move from Southern California to Anchorage, Alaska, aiming to provide a new environment for her family. Despite initial concerns about the harsh Alaskan winters, Karen noted, “Anchorage was incredible and there's so much to see and the kids were learning so much” (03:44), highlighting the adaptability and adventurous spirit of her children.

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Bonnie Craig: A Unique Teenager

Bonnie was far from an ordinary teenager. She was deeply involved in community activities, wrote poetry, played the violin, and was determined to become a psychologist. Her proactive nature was evident when she started a group combating drunk driving after losing a friend. “She was very kind, caring, just a sweetheart to everybody,” described her friend Kristen McCart (04:54).

Bonnie also broke barriers as the first female wrestler in Alaska, showcasing her determination and resilience. Kristen recalls, “She was always trying to do things that other people would perceive they shouldn't do” (04:54).

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The Day of Disappearance

On the morning of September 28, 1994, Bonnie left her home before sunrise to catch a bus to the University of Alaska campus. However, she never attended her 7 a.m. English class nor any subsequent classes that day. Kristen McCart shares the immediate concern, “She didn't show up because she didn't” (06:12), emphasizing that Bonnie was consistent in her attendance.

Later that day, Bonnie's body was discovered in McHugh Creek, a scenic yet remote area about 10 miles from both her home and the campus. The initial police report labeled her death as a hiking accident, attributing it to a fall that resulted in severe head injuries. However, Karen Foster was unconvinced. Upon viewing Bonnie's remains, she observed, “Bonnie's body and I see her knuckles, they're all battered and I realized no, these are defensive wounds” (14:15).

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Karen Foster's Quest for Truth

Determined to uncover the truth, Karen refused to accept the accidental death ruling. She pushed back against the authorities, asserting, “You need to get back here, take more pictures. It's not a hiking accident” (09:16). Her skepticism was heightened by her background as an undercover police officer involved in dismantling a dangerous drug cartel. Karen feared a possible connection between her work and Bonnie's death: “Maybe they have gone after me. Maybe they are doing that to get back at Anchorage Police Department” (14:52).

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Initial Investigation and Suspects

The Alaska State Troopers initially focused their investigation on Karen’s ex-husband, Gary, who had been Bonnie’s stepfather. Despite their tumultuous divorce and Gary’s early return from being out of town the night before Bonnie’s disappearance, Gary was eventually cleared after providing an alibi and cooperating fully with the investigators (18:18).

Maria Downey, a friend of the family and journalist, adds depth to the narrative, stating, “Bonnie was such a well-loved young lady. She was Alaska-grown… really intelligent young girl, kind, compassionate” (18:30). However, suspicions mounted around a student from Bonnie's English class whose journal contained disturbing and violent entries dated on September 28th—the very day of Bonnie's disappearance (20:44).

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Breakthrough and Setback with DNA Evidence

In 2006, a significant breakthrough occurred when DNA evidence linked Kenneth Dion, a man from New Hampshire, to Bonnie's murder. At the time of his arrest, Dion was serving time for robberies and had surfaced in the national CODIS database, matching the DNA found in Bonnie (33:05). However, the initial DNA match was based on six DNA points, which later proved inconclusive when a more comprehensive 13-point analysis revealed that Dion was not the perpetrator (30:28). Karen expressed her devastation, “It was like my guts had been ripped out. I basically shut down” (31:22), highlighting the emotional toll of the continuous setbacks.

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Karen’s Relentless Pursuit

Frustrated by the lack of progress, Karen took matters into her own hands, conducting her own investigations and holding press conferences to keep the case in the public eye. She meticulously documented every lead, no matter how tenuous, and collaborated closely with local journalist Maria Downey to fill in the gaps left by the police. “Any lead that came in, she'd personally look into” (20:31), Karen’s dedication was unwavering.

In 2001, just before the pandemic shifted global attention, the Alaska State Troopers disclosed that Bonnie had been sexually assaulted and severely beaten before her accidental fall, information that Karen felt should have been shared earlier to aid the investigation (22:32). This revelation added another layer of complexity to the case, suggesting foul play rather than a mere accident.

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Emerging Suspicion on a Bus Driver

The investigation took a troubling turn when attention shifted to a bus driver who had driven Bonnie to campus on the morning of her disappearance. Reports had surfaced alleging the driver’s inappropriate behavior with young girls, and peculiarities in his account raised suspicions. DNA testing initially matched him to the crime scene, but a more detailed analysis once again disproved his involvement (30:25). Karen's frustration was palpable: “All you need is one juror who could end up throwing the case” (35:05).

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Cliffhanger and Continued Struggle

As the episode concludes, Karen remains entrenched in her mission for justice, even as new legal battles emerge over missing evidence. The case, spanning 17 years, is far from resolved, leaving listeners eager for the second part where the courtroom drama and the hunt for conclusive evidence come to the forefront.

“I would always check with the Alaska state troopers and ask what was going on. If they're doing anything, is there any leads?” (32:07) Karen’s relentless pursuit underscores the emotional and procedural challenges in solving such a haunting case.

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Notable Quotes

• Karen Foster: “Bonnie's body and I see her knuckles, they're all battered and I realized no, these are defensive wounds” (14:15).

• Kristen McCart: “She was probably one of the kindest people I've ever met. It was almost impossible for somebody not to like her” (04:54).

• Maria Downey: “We were getting so little information from the troopers that she helped to fill in some of the blanks” (20:09).

• Karen Foster: “It just made me so sick to think it could have been solved in weeks. Instead, it was a 17-year saga” (35:16).

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Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes

"Someone Is Getting Away with Murder, Part 1" paints a meticulous and emotionally charged portrait of Bonnie Craig's tragic death and the relentless pursuit of justice by her mother, Karen Foster. The episode sets the stage for an intense courtroom showdown and the final pieces of evidence that could finally bring closure to a family and a community left in anguish.

Tune in for Part 2, where the courtroom becomes the battleground for truth and justice, and Karen confronts new obstacles in her quest to ensure Bonnie's murderer is held accountable.

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• Rate and Review: Your support helps others discover the series!

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This summary is based on the transcript provided and aims to capture all key points, discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode while excluding advertisements and non-content sections.

Transcript

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[Sloane Glass]

When a teenage girl was found dead in a creek, the police said it was an accident. But was it?

[Karen Foster]

She had all these head injuries. I see her knuckles. They're all battered. And I realized, no, these are defensive wounds. She's fought for her life. You've got to look into this as if it's murder.

[Sloane Glass]

Determined to find her daughter's killer, a mother went in search of justice.

[Karen Foster]

There is someone out there and they're getting away with murder.

[Sloane Glass]

Her investigation led her to consider the unthinkable. Was her daughter's death a result of something she did?

[Karen Foster]

It just made me so sick to think it could have been solved in weeks. Instead, it was a 17 year saga.

[Sloane Glass]

Today we're in Anchorage, Alaska for the first episode of Someone is Getting Away with Murder. I'm Sloane Glass and this is American Homicide. Just a note that this episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening. Relocating from Southern California to Anchorage was a big deal for Karen Foster and her family.

[Karen Foster]

My children had never been to an area like Anchorage before, and I was concerned that they would not enjoy the winters, the cold. But they totally adapted immediately.

[Sloane Glass]

Ditching their shorts for snowsuits went easier than expected for Karen and her children.

[Karen Foster]

You know, Anchorage was incredible and there's so much to see and the kids were learning so much. You know, going to glaciers, ski hills, you've got parks, you've got hiking trails. There's just so much adventure there.

[Sloane Glass]

Arguably Karen's most active child was her daughter, Bonnie, who by most accounts was not your typical teenager. She wrote poetry, played the violin, and planned to become a psychologist.

[Karen Foster]

She started a group of students against drunk drivers when she lost a really good friend of hers. So she was very kind, caring, just a sweetheart to everybody.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie had brown hair, a face full of freckles, and stood just five feet tall, not exactly someone you'd expect to see on a wrestling mat.

[Karen Foster]

She was into wrestling, which is something I never really wanted her to do.

[Sloane Glass]

At her high school, Bonnie even managed to break the glass ceiling.

[Kristen McCart]

She was the first female wrestler in the state of Alaska.

[Sloane Glass]

Kristen McCart was friends with Bonnie.

[Kristen McCart]

She was always trying to, like, do things that other people would perceive they shouldn't do. It was hard not to be friends with Bonnie. She was probably one of the kindest people I've ever met. It was almost impossible for somebody not to like her.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie graduated from high school in 1994 and planned to follow her boyfriend to college in California. But her plan didn't work out.

[Kristen McCart]

Everybody's talking about, like, what are you going to do next year? And Bonnie seemed, like, sad a little bit about graduating and she wasn't going to be going out of state.

[Sloane Glass]

So Bonnie's mom wanted her to stay home for her freshman year.

[Kristen McCart]

But ultimately that was her plan, was to go out of state with him.

[Sloane Glass]

In 1994, Kristen and Bonnie Started classes at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.

[Kristen McCart]

I mean, we were both working pretty much full time to help pay for college because neither of us wanted a lot of debt.

[Sloane Glass]

On Wednesday, September 28, 1994, Bonnie left her home before sunrise to catch her bus to campus.

[Kristen McCart]

But nobody remembered seeing her at school that day.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie never showed up for her 7am English class or any of her classes that day.

[Kristen McCart]

It was really weird that she didn't come to school because she didn't.

[Sloane Glass]

She.

[Kristen McCart]

I don't remember ever missing a day of school in high school. Like, even when she was sick, she would still show up.

[Sloane Glass]

That evening, Kristin's boyfriend learned why Bonnie didn't make it to class.

[Kristen McCart]

He said, they found Bonnie's body. And I was like, what? Like, total shock? He just says, yeah, they found her body at McHugh Creek. They don't know what happened. And, like, I just started crying.

[Sloane Glass]

McHugh Creek runs through a state park some 10 miles from both the University of Alaska campus and Bonnie's home in Anchorage.

[Kristen McCart]

We all wondered, like, how she got there. She didn't even drive a car.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie didn't have a driver's license and preferred taking public transportation. But no buses went to that forest preserve.

[Kristen McCart]

And that was such a long walk. You would have to walk down the highway quite a ways.

[Sloane Glass]

All of that added to the mystery.

[Kristen McCart]

It would have meant that she chose to get in a car with someone, which she wouldn't have done. So in my mind and in the mind of most of our friends, we knew something had happened to cause her to end up in McHugh Creek.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie's mother, Karen, was vacationing in Florida when an Alaska state trooper called her with the news.

[Karen Foster]

A trooper gets on the line and he says that, my daughter Bonnie is dead. She fell in a hiking accident.

[Sloane Glass]

The trooper explained that Bonnie slipped off a ledge at a state park in Anchorage, hit her head on some jagged rocks, and plunged more than 30ft into a creek. He told her that another hiker spotted her body that afternoon and called the police.

[Karen Foster]

I'm in total denial. And I asked them who was with her. He says, there was no one with her. I said, she didn't drive. How would she have gotten out there? And he has no answer for me. I said, what time was she found? And he said, 2:00 in the afternoon. I said, no, she should have been at the university. She had papers that were due and she had a paper that she was going to be handing in that day at her English class.

[Sloane Glass]

If Bonnie had gone hiking that afternoon, that meant she would have had to skip school.

[Karen Foster]

There's no way that Bonnie would have missed a class. She was very particular about going to school and going to her classes.

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie was found in a creek several miles from campus with a dozen cuts to her head, including a deep gash at the base of her skull. She also had bruises on her knuckles. And strangely, Bonnie's backpack, keys, and even the can of mace attached to her keychain were missing.

[Karen Foster]

Nothing made sense, so I immediately told him, no, no, it's gotta be murder. You've gotta look into this as if it's murder.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen spent the long flight home trying to make sense of what the troopers told her.

[Karen Foster]

So from Florida back to Alaska, you're at least 12 hours flying time and you can't sleep and you just. You're shaking. Who would hurt Bonnie? How could this be?

[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie was a creature of habit and had a routine every morning when she went to school.

[Karen Foster]

So that morning, Bonnie would have gotten up probably around 5, 5:30, walked down the block and then out to a bus stop almost a mile from the house. She would have been at the university from a 7am class until 3 in the afternoon.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen wondered if someone had been watching Bonnie and knew her usual route. And that's when a thought sent chills down her spine.

[Karen Foster]

So I was a reserved police officer with Anchorage Police Department, and we would go out and buy drugs from certain people. We also had informants that would tell us who the people were and who was selling drugs and stuff like that. And just before Bonnie was murdered, we did a major bust.

[Sloane Glass]

Although Karen worked undercover, her name was listed throughout the court documents.

[Karen Foster]

All over the indictment is my name again and again and again. They know who I am. And the people that I identified had been released from jail the day before.

[Sloane Glass]

Those drug dealers Karen helped to put away were back on the street the day before Bonnie's mysterious death.

[Karen Foster]

You just never thought that somebody like that would hurt your child. It just made me so sick to think, oh, my God, Bonnie may be dead because of my work with the police department.

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[Sloane Glass]

18 year old Bonnie Craig was supposed to be in school on the morning of September 28, 1994. Instead, the police found her face down in a Creek some 10 miles from her college campus. They ruled her death a hiking accident, but after viewing her daughter's remains, Bonnie's mother, Karen, was furious.

[Karen Foster]

You see Bonnie's body and I see her knuckles, they're all battered and I realized no, these are defensive wounds. She's fought for her life and I told them, you need to get back here, take more pictures. It's not a hiking accident.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen worked with the Anchorage Police Department and at the time had recently helped break up a dangerous drug cartel. She feared that that bust might be connected to Bonnie's death.

[Karen Foster]

Because of the work I've been doing, maybe they have gone after me. Maybe they are doing that to get back at me, to get back at Anchorage Police Department.

[Sloane Glass]

Alaska State troopers took a second look at Bonnie's autopsy and agreed that her Death was not accidental, but they assured Karen it was not the work of a local drug cartel.

[Karen Foster]

They said, no, this had to be somebody on their own. There wasn't more than one person involved in this.

[Sloane Glass]

At the time, the troopers were focused on a different suspect. Karen's ex husband, Gary. Gary was not Bonnie's biological father, but he raised her. This was the person she called dad.

[Karen Foster]

Gary and I got married when Bonnie was just 3 years old. So Gary took over as dad immediately and was always dad to her.

[Sloane Glass]

But Karen and Gary's marriage didn't last. The two divorced in 1992, which stung their children.

[Karen Foster]

You know, they didn't want their mom and dad divorced. That's hard for kids.

[Sloane Glass]

Although Karen and Gary tried to remain civil, it wasn't easy. Things got especially tense when Bonnie decided to move in with Gary right before she started college.

[Karen Foster]

I was devastated when Bonnie moved out. I mean, I was so hurt because she didn't tell me. She said, I didn't want to tell you because I knew you would want to stop me. It's going to be easier for me to get to school and to college she was talking about.

[Sloane Glass]

So just before college started, Bonnie moved in with her then former stepdad. And there was a reason the police wanted to question him.

[Karen Foster]

Gary was supposed to be out of town, and he came back early. In fact, he got back the night before, and he was in bed sleeping when Bonnie left for school the next day.

[Sloane Glass]

That caught the attention of investigators because.

[Karen Foster]

He came back early, and Bonnie ended up dead the next day. They were looking into.

[Sloane Glass]

Was an uncomfortable situation, not only for Gary, but for Karen.

[Karen Foster]

Gary was her dad. He loved her dearly. But yet I still started to think, could it have been him? You know, we had gone through a nasty divorce, and he wasn't happy with me. There was anger towards me, but not to the cats.

[Sloane Glass]

Investigators didn't want to spook Gary, so they came up with a plan. They asked Karen, Gary, and all of their children to voluntarily provide their fingerprints and a sample of DNA.

[Karen Foster]

They were afraid that if they just asked Gary, that he might lawyer up.

[Sloane Glass]

But Gary didn't lawyer up. He cooperated with investigators and told them he had an alibi.

[Karen Foster]

They had talked to people where he worked, and he was in the office that day.

[Sloane Glass]

Three months after Gary supplied his DNA to investigators, he was finally cleared.

[Maria Downey]

So we know that they did interview members of the family and her boyfriend, but at the time, they were quickly ruled out as suspects.

[Sloane Glass]

Maria Downey worked for an Anchorage TV station.

[Maria Downey]

Bonnie was Karen Foster's Daughter, someone who I've known for years.

[Sloane Glass]

The two were longtime friends. And for Maria, covering the murder investigation of a friend's daughter wasn't easy.

[Maria Downey]

It was really tough. I think it was tough for the whole community to hear that because Bonnie was such a well loved young lady. She was Alaska grown. She was always involved in from high school to junior high at the university. Very active in the community, really intelligent young girl, kind, compassionate, and so we really hit the community hard.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen confided in Maria and shared the frustration she had with the Alaska state troopers.

[Maria Downey]

She felt like troopers weren't doing enough because she believed right away there was a killer out there.

[Sloane Glass]

The troopers originally declared Bonnie's death an accident, which upset Karen. But once investigators came around to what Karen originally suspected, she was equally dismayed at how little homicide detectives shared with her. Keep in mind, Karen was an insider, one of them, and yet she was still shut out.

[Maria Downey]

The repeat line was they weren't releasing more information. Now, we're all aware during a murder investigation, you do withhold key information, but in this case, so much information was withheld that I really do think it jeopardized their case because people out there who might have noticed something suspicious going on never said anything because they thought it was accidental.

[Sloane Glass]

At the time, Karen was a mom on a mission. Nothing was going to stop her. She responded by holding press conferences of her own.

[Maria Downey]

I think it was so important to hear from Karen because we were getting so little information from the troopers that she helped to fill in some of the blanks where Bonnie was supposed to be, what she typically would be doing that time of day. And it really helped, I think, the community to start being more aware of what they might have seen that day.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen then took it a step further. She started her own investigation. Any lead that came in, she'd personally look into, including one about a student from Bonnie's English class.

[Maria Downey]

And she showed me excerpts from a student's journal, a student who happened to be in class with Bonnie. And they were really disturbing, very graphic, very violent stories within this journal.

[Karen Foster]

He mentioned that September 28th was going to be a very stressful day for him, that he was being put to a test.

[Sloane Glass]

September 28th was the day of Bonnie's murder. And this student, who wrote that September 28th would be a stressful day for him, was absent from class that day.

[Karen Foster]

He seemed very violent and very angry. And in one location, it even said, die, bitch.

[Sloane Glass]

Later that day, on September 28th, that student eventually showed up to his professor's.

[Karen Foster]

Office, and he came to her office later on in the day. And he looked soaking wet, like he'd just gotten out of the shower. And she said he reeked of perfume.

[Sloane Glass]

That student informed the professor that he had been at McHugh Creek that day. When they pulled a body out of the water, it was Bonnie Craig.

[Karen Foster]

We both thought that that was incredibly strange, and so we brought that to the troopers again, and they said that they'd already looked into him and they'd taken his DNA, and DNA didn't.

[Sloane Glass]

It was another dead end for investigators. By this point, nearly all of Bonnie's family, friends, and acquaintances had been questioned and cleared, meaning the suspect likely was someone Bonnie didn't know. Three long years would pass before the Alaska State Troopers revealed new details about Bonnie's murder to the public.

[Karen Foster]

The troops. Troopers told me Bonnie was raped.

[Sloane Glass]

On the third anniversary of Bonnie's murder, Alaska State Troopers publicly shared that Bonnie had been sexually assaulted and severely beaten just before she toppled over a cliff and plunged to her death. They hoped this information would help someone come forward with a name. Bonnie's mother, once again felt this information would have been helpful earlier in the investigation.

[Karen Foster]

Three years after she was abducted, raped, and murdered, they finally allowed the public to know. It was really difficult, so the story.

[Maria Downey]

Just kind of kept unfolding along the way. It's just stunning.

[Sloane Glass]

Journalist Maria Downey had never heard of holding this information from the public for so long.

[Maria Downey]

We asked the troopers repeatedly why they waited so long and why this information wasn't released, and we never quite got a clear answer.

[Sloane Glass]

At that same 1997 press conference, the Alaska State Troopers also shared that the backpack Bonnie was carrying that morning was never recovered.

[Maria Downey]

The troubling part about this is that I think more information, a lot more details would have helped this case.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Amica Insurance Representative]

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[Sloane Glass]

Bonnie Craig was murdered in 1994. Throughout their investigation, the Alaska State troopers questioned dozens of suspects. But by the year 2000, the case remained unsolved.

[Maria Downey]

We covered this story for months and then it was years.

[Sloane Glass]

Journalist Maria Downey as time went on.

[Maria Downey]

We heard very little about the case. It could very well be. Investigators were working behind the scenes on it, but there were still posters and there were still flyers being disseminated years after to help solve this case.

[Sloane Glass]

Frustrated with the investigation, Bonnie's mother, Karen, did her own detective detective work.

[Maria Downey]

Many mothers, they want to find justice. They'll do all they can to find closure, to find the person responsible for their child's death. But Karen took it. Not just one, not just two, but many, many steps forward from there. She was that steady informational source who had uncovered things on her own and investigate her own daughter's case. And she continually kept to get that information out to help solve this case.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen did everything she could to keep the unsolved case in the news. She continued to host her own press conferences and she made sure that Bonnie's face remained in the public eye throughout Anchorage.

[Maria Downey]

There were Signs all over town. We're talking big billboard signs, bus signs, basically, to help find Bonnie's killer. And that went on for years.

[Sloane Glass]

In giant letters, these billboards asked, who killed Bonnie? And someone's getting away with murder.

[Karen Foster]

I had people walking up to me all the time, giving me a hug and saying they were sorry. They were total strangers, but they knew from the amount of interviews I had done that I was Bonnie's mom.

[Sloane Glass]

Some people even called Karen with tiffs late at night. Even some psychics contacted her. No matter how far fetched the information they shared may have seemed, Karen took all of them seriously.

[Karen Foster]

I would write everything down, I would take notes, and I'd bring it to the Alaska State troopers and they would just say, okay, we're looking into it.

[Sloane Glass]

In 2000, the DNA found in Bonnie was when she was murdered was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS. That program formally went into place in 1998 with the hopes of solving cold cases like Bonnie's.

[Karen Foster]

I truly believe that our only weapon of finding anything was DNA.

[Sloane Glass]

DNA helped to clear all of the suspects. The Alaska state troopers question questioned except for one, and this is someone we haven't talked about yet. The bus driver who drove Bonnie to campus on the morning of her murder.

[Karen Foster]

Apparently, they got some reports that he had been inappropriate with a couple of young girls on the bus.

[Sloane Glass]

Notably, that driver wasn't the usual driver.

[Karen Foster]

For the route that day. I think he was filling in for somebody else. And he. He took off Just after that day.

[Sloane Glass]

The bus driver sort of disappeared. But the troopers tracked him down and immediately were suspicious of his story.

[Karen Foster]

When he was interviewed, he said he didn't see Bonnie on the bus. And then I believe the Alaska state troopers had a couple other people that said, yeah, she was on the bus. So they were concerned.

[Sloane Glass]

So investigators collected a sample of the bus driver's DNA and tested it to see if it matched the DNA found in Bonnie. When the results came back, they were all speechless.

[Karen Foster]

The DNA came up with a match.

[Sloane Glass]

This was the moment that Karen had been waiting for.

[Karen Foster]

You're just hoping so much that, yes, make this it and get the evidence so that we can convict somebody.

[Sloane Glass]

But there is more. The Alaska lab that did that testing was equipped to test six spots of DNA. Then investigators ordered a more advanced DNA test that looked at the 13 different points of DNA.

[Karen Foster]

After they did a second DNA test, they knew, no, this isn't the guy. It was unbelievable, Just frigging unbelievable.

[Sloane Glass]

I can't imagine her disappointment. That had to have felt like two steps forward, one huge step back. It was another blow to, to investigators and Karen.

[Karen Foster]

It was like, like my guts had been ripped out. I basically shut down.

[Sloane Glass]

In September 2001, Karen had plans to do her annual press conference on the anniversary of Bonnie's death. But then came 9, 11.

[Karen Foster]

After September 11, I decided, you know, our whole nation's grieving and it was time to move on. The murder of one girl in Alaska was nothing compared to September 11th.

[Sloane Glass]

Instead of going back on the media circuit, Karen decided to take a more low key route.

[Karen Foster]

Not that I was ever going to give up. I would always check with the Alaska state troopers and ask what was going on. If they're doing anything, is there any leads?

[Sloane Glass]

Their answer was always the same. Nothing. In 2002, the TV show Unsolved Mysteries highlighted Bonnie's case. But once again, there were no arrests. It wouldn't be until 2006, some 12 years after Bonnie Craig's murder, that news came in about the investigation.

[Karen Foster]

I am in Thailand on a remote island, and I get this email saying that it's from the Alaska state troopers and that he would really like to talk to me.

[Sloane Glass]

Karen managed to get to a telephone. That's when she heard the words that she'd been waiting over a decade to hear.

[Karen Foster]

He found the killer.

[Sloane Glass]

DNA evidence led Alaska State Troopers to a suspect some 3,000 miles away in New Hampshire.

[Karen Foster]

They had identified somebody whose DNA matched.

[Sloane Glass]

The suspect was a man named Kenneth Dion, who at the time was 37 years old.

[Karen Foster]

He was addicted to Oxycontin and successfully robbed a couple of pharmacies to get his OxyContin.

[Sloane Glass]

At the time of his arrest, Kenneth Dion was serving time for those robberies. In 2006, his DNA was put into the national CODIS database and quickly matched the DNA found in Bonnie.

[Karen Foster]

They were almost 100% sure that this was the guy who killed Bonnie.

[Sloane Glass]

Alaska troopers flew out to New Hampshire to interview Kenneth Dion. Kenneth claimed he had no memory of Bonnie and denied any involvement in her murder, but his DNA said otherwise. So the police arrested Kenneth and charged him with sexually assaulting and murdering Bonnie Craig. In the 12 years between Bonnie's death and the arrest, the name Kenneth Dion never came up as a suspect.

[Karen Foster]

He didn't know Bonnie and none of us knew him. It was a total random crime.

[Sloane Glass]

Even with her daughter's suspected killer in custody, Karen couldn't shake a bad feeling.

[Karen Foster]

I always thought I would be so excited and relieved to hear that. And I just got so fearful thinking, oh, my God, are we going to be able to convict him. All we've got is DNA.

[Sloane Glass]

And his defense team would put up a fight that would force investigators to account for a key piece of missing evidence.

[Karen Foster]

All you need is one juror who could end up throwing the case.

[Sloane Glass]

All of which would push Karen's patients to its limits.

[Karen Foster]

It could have been solved in weeks. Instead, it was a 17 year saga.

[Sloane Glass]

And it would end with Karen engaged in a totally different fight.

[Karen Foster]

No, no, no. It's too important. We need to change this law now.

[Sloane Glass]

In the conclusion of someone is getting away with murder, we'll go into the court courtroom where a key piece of evidence goes missing. I'm Sloan Glass. That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing [e-mail] that's AmericanHomicidePodmail.com American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloan Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Ganz. The series is also written and produced by Todd Ganz with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristin Melchuri. Our iHeart team is ally Perry and Jessica Kryczak. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Aruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library, provided by My Music. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[PayPal Representative]

[e-mail] PayPal lets you pay all your pals like your graduation gifters.

[Sloane Glass]

Who's paying for the mattress topper?

[Ryan Seacrest]

You mean the beanbag chair?

[Karen Foster]

Aren't we getting a mini fru?

[Sloane Glass]

Can we create a pool on PayPal?

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[Sloane Glass]

Ooh, yes, that's smart. Glad we can agree on something easily.

[PayPal Representative]

Pool split and Send Money with PayPal get started in the PayPal app. A PayPal account is required to send and receive money. A balance account is required to create a pool.