A grand jury has indicted Aaron Mitchell Hague within the killing of his former roommate, John McClelland, 61, who vanished from the house they rented in North Pole in mid-August 2020.
Hague, 33, already faces homicide and identification theft fees in a March 2021 murder in Gresham, Oregon, and is being held in a Portland jail.
He’s now additionally charged with first-degree homicide within the loss of life of McClelland, suspected to have occurred between Aug. 14, 2020, and Aug. 26, 2020, within the Fairbanks space, in response to the indictment filed Friday within the Fourth Judicial District of the Superior Courtroom for Alaska in Fairbanks.
Alaska investigators have mentioned Hague fled to Oregon to keep away from questions on his roommate’s disappearance.
McClelland appeared to final use his financial institution debit card at 5:43 p.m. Aug. 14, 2020, when he purchased diesel for his truck at a gasoline station in Fairbanks. Police suspect Hague was final within the Fairbanks space on Aug. 26, 2020.
The Alaska indictment additionally fees Hague with tampering with bodily proof and second-degree theft, alleging he hid McClelland’s physique and stole from him.
McClelland has by no means been discovered.
McClelland’s daughter, Taylor Wick, of Vancouver, Washington, mentioned her household is relieved to be taught of the brand new indictment.
After her father’s disappearance, Wick went on the web and positioned lacking individual fliers about her father on at the least 66 completely different Alaska websites. She additionally shared suggestions she acquired with investigators.
Final July, Wick, her brother and their mom, McClelland’s ex-wife, flew to Alaska to do their very own search, mountain climbing on dust roads close to the distant Gilmore Path space within the Fairbanks gold mining district, the place her father’s cellphone had final been detected with Hague’s cellphone, in response to courtroom testimony.
“It is a step in the appropriate route,” she advised The Oregonian/OregonLive on Saturday.
“Each step will hopefully assist us discover extra solutions, or doubtlessly his stays. Our final aim is to have the ability to lay my father to relaxation in a correct manner,” Wick mentioned. “This can hopefully get us nearer to that.”
Hague’s protection lawyer, Jonathan T. Sarre, declined touch upon the brand new indictment.
Hague used McClelland’s cellphone to ship textual content messages to McClelland’s brother in August 2020, suggesting that McClelland had fallen critically ailing and requested the brother to ship cash, Alaska authorities mentioned. Alaska State Troopers scoured care facilities and hospitals within the space and located no signal of the lacking man. His truck was discovered deserted south of North Pole on Aug. 24, 2020.
But monetary information confirmed Hague used McClelland’s financial institution card to make vital purchases between Aug. 14, 2020, and Aug. 16, 2020, investigators allege. For instance, he used the cardboard to purchase $1,460 value of gaming tools at a Fairbanks Walmart and opened an account in McClelland’s identify with Alaska’s largest telecommunications supplier, GCI, to order the quickest web service doable, in response to courtroom testimony.
Hague later confirmed up within the fall of 2020 on the Sullivan Area homeless shelter in Anchorage, the place he met Anthony Alcorn of Ohio. When Alaska State Troopers went to the shelter to query him about McClelland’s disappearance, Hague claimed he was his brother Jesse and that Aaron Hague was in Russia, in response to courtroom testimony from Alaska troopers.
On Oct. 21, 2020, Hague flew to Seattle and took a prepare to Portland, the place he assumed the identify of Alcorn, in response to courtroom information. In March 2021, Hague satisfied the true Alcorn, 28, to fly to Portland from Alaska, on the promise of an excellent job within the Portland space. Days later, Alcorn’s physique was discovered within the woods off the Springwater Hall in Gresham. He had died of blunt power trauma to this head, an post-mortem discovered.
Gresham Detective Justin Choose mentioned Hague was dwelling and dealing as Alcorn within the Gresham space. Hague introduced Alcorn to Oregon to kill him, Multnomah County prosecutor Shawn Overstreet alleged in courtroom.
In July 2021, a jury in a civil listening to in Alaska declared McClelland was presumed useless and sure died by murder, based mostly on testimony from his daughter, his boss and Alaska State Troopers.
“We imagine that he was 100% murdered,” Sgt. Jeremy Rupe, an investigator for the Alaska State Troopers, testified on the uncommon loss of life presumption listening to late final yr.
McClelland’s brother, his former boss, Hague’s brother, father and probation officer, Alcorn’s mom and the lead Gresham police detective in Alcorn’s killing had been amongst about 40 individuals who testified earlier than the grand jury that returned the homicide indictment in opposition to Hague within the Alaska case, information present.
McClelland had been working at a property administration firm within the space of North Pole for about two and a half years earlier than he disappeared. He was doing constructing upkeep, portray homes and different odd jobs, in response to his supervisor. Hague had labored for a similar firm.
Hague is awaiting trial in Multnomah County in Alcorn’s killing. He has pleaded not responsible to homicide and identification theft in that case. He’s set to go to trial in Portland on July 25. The Multnomah County trial is anticipated to proceed earlier than he faces the fees within the Alaska case, although bail in that case has been set at $2 million.