{"id":9426,"date":"2017-09-15T15:13:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T15:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/butcherbaker.net\/wordpress\/?p=9426"},"modified":"2020-09-28T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T20:59:11","slug":"hansens-victims-upper-kenai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/butcherbaker\/wordpress\/2017\/09\/15\/hansens-victims-upper-kenai\/","title":{"rendered":"Hansen's Victims: Lakes of the Upper Kenai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though he generally claimed otherwise, the Kenai Peninsula — especially toward Seward — was Robert Hansen’s other killing field. Indeed, this area corresponds to some of his earliest victims<\/a>, stretching back to the early to mid-’70s. These were the days before<\/em> Hansen owned an airplane, the days when he trekked his boat to Seward and went “fishing.”<\/p>\n

\"Upper
\nDetail: Hansen’s Map — Kenai Peninsula<\/strong> (courtesy Alaska State Troopers)<\/p>\n

\"Upper
\nLakes on the Upper Kenai Peninsula<\/strong> (Google Maps; illustration Leland E. Hale)<\/p>\n

Upper Kenai Peninsula Victims<\/h4>\n

Joanna Messina’s body was found near Kenai Lake, just south of Moose Pass. A dental assistant by training, she was broke and alone when Hansen tried to pick her up on the Seward docks. He imagined he would have a “normal” date with her and, indeed, she agreed to hang out with him. Joanna\u00a0couldn’t stay in town, though, because she had a cannery job-call the following day and needed to get back to her campsite.
\nWhen she asked Hansen for money, things quickly went south. In Hansen’s mind, that made her a prostitute. He killed Joanna — hastily burying her in a gravel pit — and then he killed her dog.<\/p>\n

Troopers became aware of this 1980 homicide when a bear started after Joanna’s body. Because of that, she was forever known as the “Bear Lady” among troopers. The first suspect in her death was a Seward vet\u00a0for whom Joanna had briefly worked. He was married; they’d had an affair. When confronted by troopers, however, the vet\u00a0denied knowing Joanna — which caused him to fail a polygraph test. That was a huge mistake; it immediately made him the prime<\/em> suspect. The vet\u00a0finally came clean; it was a contrite man who, in the company of his wife, admitted to his relationship with Joanna, using his infidelity as the rationale for his earlier lies.<\/p>\n

For his part, Robert Hansen expressed some regret about Joanna’s murder during his confession:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was only one other time it went bad,\u201d Hansen claimed<\/em> (misleadingly) of Joanna Messina’s murder, \u201cand that\u2019s down by Seward. Maybe she was desperate. That one, I\u2019ve had an awful lot of second thoughts about.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpt From: Walter Gilmour & Leland E. Hale. \u201cButcher, Baker<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n