Alaska’s Secret Hero: How Sex Workers Stopped a Killer

In Anchorage, people who sell sex were once seen as disposable. A serial killer used that belief to hide his crimes. The truth emerged when these workers spoke up and gave police vital clues. A woman in the industry once told cops that a man had shown her a video of a dead woman being raped. She said the victim was a Black prostitute. Police ignored her because they treated sex workers as low‑value citizens, so no investigation started. Because of this mindset, Alaska keeps spending money on arresting sex workers instead of looking into rapes, disappearances or murders. In one case, a woman who helped keep the industry safe was charged with trafficking while a man accused of murder went unexamined. The state’s approach is simple: target the vulnerable, ignore warning signs, and claim it protects public safety.In 2016, sex workers gained the right to report violence without fear of arrest. Yet a year later, local police pushed back, arguing that the threat of being charged for prostitution must stay. They wanted to keep this risk alive even when people were trying to report serious crimes like child pornography. If the industry’s hero had known she could safely call the police, she might have handed over evidence directly instead of hiding it on a memory card to avoid arrest. That could have saved more lives and uncovered other victims. The organization Community United for Safety and Protection is fighting to change these laws. They argue that criminalizing sex work hurts everyone, especially when predators use the silence it creates to operate. Alaska’s future hinges on whether lawmakers keep old policies or admit that treating sex workers as less important lets killers thrive. Protecting people does not require approval of their choices; it requires keeping them alive and safe.