On October 17, 2019, a Wasilla resident named white male, Terry Spencer, age 32, was killed. Two days later, a hunter traveling a four-wheel-drive trail near North Nightfall Street in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough found the body of the male, age 32, with a single gunshot wound to the head, prompting an investigation led by Alaska State Troopers and the Palmer General Investigation Unit. The discovery site sat north of the Little Susitna River and Pittman Road, a quiet edge of town suddenly turned into a crime scene.
Detectives quickly began stitching together the last movements of the male, age 32. Within days, they identified a suspect and moved in. On October 25, 2019, troopers arrested 39-year-old Cooper Gordon in connection with the killing of the male, age 32. The arrest followed early investigative work that recovered the victim's belongings— including his firearms— in Gordon's possession; investigators also determined Gordon had taken the victim's vehicle after the shooting.
Years later, in a Palmer courtroom, the narrative reached a verdict. After a two-week trial, a jury convicted Gordon in early October 2023 of two counts of murder in the second degree for the death of the male, age 32, along with theft in the second degree for stealing the victim's firearms; a judge subsequently found him guilty of third-degree misconduct involving weapons for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The facts the jury heard echoed the early days of the case: the male, age 32, found on October 19, 2019, shot once in the head near Nightfall, with his property and vehicle missing.
On March 1, 2024, Superior Court Judge Jonathon Woodman imposed a composite 56-year sentence: 50 years for murder in the second degree, plus consecutive terms for the theft and the weapons conviction. In explaining the choice, the court described Gordon's conduct as among the most serious and his prospects for rehabilitation as poor, a conclusion shaped by his criminal history and the facts of the killing. The sentence sealed the case that began on a cold October trail, delivering a legal resolution for the killing of the male, age 32, from Wasilla.
In the public record that followed, memorial pages fixed the date of death as October 17, 2019, while the official discovery was recorded on October 19. The arrest within the first week, the recovery of the victim's firearms and vehicle from the suspect, the jury's guilty verdicts, and the court's 56-year sentence together form the arc of accountability in the death of the male, age 32, from Wasilla.
