Kawena Naleieha, a 26-year-old Black female, died on September 14, 2025, after she was found shortly before 8 a.m. along the 100 block of North Post Road near Anchorage's Ship Creek industrial area. Officers responding at 7:59 a.m. discovered the 26-year-old female with trauma to her upper body; medics rushed her to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
Investigators soon identified her by name and began piecing together what happened on that quiet Sunday morning.
As detectives canvassed the area, they obtained surveillance footage showing a green Subaru with a distinctive white hood passing the spot where the 26-year-old female collapsed. According to charging documents summarized by local public media, the video captured the moment she appeared to notice the car just minutes before she was found wounded. Early on September 17, officers learned of a similar Subaru disabled near Chena Avenue and Davis Street in Muldoon; when they detained its driver, he allegedly told detectives he had been looking for the 26-year-old female that morning and fired multiple. 22-caliber rounds from the driver's window before driving away. Investigators have not publicly described any relationship between the two or a clear motive.
Through formal updates, police confirmed the victim's identity as 26-year-old Kawena Naleieha and said next-of-kin notifications were completed. In the days that followed, friends and relatives organized fundraisers, including one to bring her home from Alaska for services and another that mourned her as a beloved sister, while memorial pages noted she was lost to gun violence. One family-organized fundraiser described her killing as the silencing of a witness, a claim made by loved ones as they grieved and sought help with funeral costs.
By September 17, detectives named a suspect and made an arrest. Nineteen-year-old Jacob Berkey was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder, then remanded to the Anchorage Correctional Complex. At his initial court appearance that Wednesday, news reports say bail was set at $500,000; he did not enter a plea at that time. Court-tracking sites and police statements emphasize that the case remains active and that a criminal charge is an allegation, not proof of guilt, even as the arrest brought the first measure of resolution in the killing of the 26-year-old female from Anchorage.
