Bonnie Craig’s murder case goes back to the 1990s when she was only seventeen years old. 

A Superior Court judge sentenced Kenneth Dion, 42, to 124 years in prison for the murder of Bonnie Craig that occurred 17 years ago. 

The crime, which left Craig abducted, raped, beaten, and left for dead in a creek, had a lasting impact on the community of Anchorage.

Crime went unsolved for years until DNA evidence matched Dion to the crime in 2006. Judge Jack Smith did not issue any suspended time in the sentence.

For the murder, which haunted Anchorage for years, 42-year-old Kenneth Dion received a sentence of 124 years. Judge Jack Smith ordered no suspended time.

On a chilly fall day, September 28, 1994, a hiker discovered Craig’s body face down and immersed in McHugh Creek. 

Years passed with few promising clues, but then semen from Craig was discovered and DNA from Dion, who had been convicted of a series of armed robberies in New Hampshire in 2006, matched.

A jury found him guilty of killing Craig in June following a 21-day trial. The connections between the family members had become strained, according to Campbell and Foster, as the parents of the murder victim concentrated on her demise.

When prosecutor Paul Miovas described the convicted killer’s prior assaults on women, Dion, who had mainly been calm during the trial and sentencing, lost his cool and shouted in wrath.

After breaking the terms of his probation for robberies in Alaska two years before Craig’s passing, Dion should have been arrested, according to Miovas.

The aftermath

In contrast to other murder cases, the homicide, according to Smith, met the legal criteria of a “worst offense” due to a number of factors, including the specifics of Craig’s kidnapping, rape, and deadly beating.

Based on laws from 1994, Smith gave Dion a maximum of 99 years in prison for first-degree murder and 25 years for first-degree s*xual assault.

Miovas had asked the judge to limit Dion’s eligibility for parole; instead, the judge decided to defer to a parole board’s judgement. In a little over 39 years, Dion would be qualified for a parole hearing, according to Smith.

As the door shut and Dion was brought away, spectators in the gallery cheered.

Miovas expressed his satisfaction with the verdict outside the courthouse and wished it would enable Craig’s family to put the case behind them. Foster claimed that the once-cold murder case had now found some closure for her.

Foster remarked, “I’ve probably been very, very positive ever since the conviction. This is the last chapter; he can no longer rule our lives, and we can now begin the healing process. We can move forward with our lives now.”