White/Caucasian male Dustin Marx, 28, died on April 15, 2019, in Seward, Alaska. Alaska State Troopers reported that he and another man, 40-year-old Michael White, were found shot inside a van after an encounter at a private property near Seward. Initial reports identified both victims and placed the shooting in the small port community roughly 120 miles south of Anchorage.
According to court documents and trooper accounts described in local reporting, the property owner, Joseph Chandler Jr., called authorities and told them he had shot the two men after they drove onto his land and an argument erupted when he told them to leave. Chandler said he believed his life was in danger; investigators later noted that no weapons were found in the victims' van. The confrontation and gunfire were reported just after 6 p.m. on Nash Road outside Seward's city limits, and both men died at the scene.
Troopers arrested Chandler the next day, and prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. Early coverage said he was held without bail while the case moved forward, with authorities emphasizing that the shootings occurred inside the van after the dispute at the property line. Those initial filings and summaries anchored the narrative in the days immediately following Marx's death.
Years later, the legal outcome shifted. After a mistrial in 2023 that set up a new proceeding, a Kenai jury acquitted Chandler in December 2023 of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Marx and White. Coverage of the verdict closed the criminal chapter that began with the April 2019 arrests, confirming that Chandler was found not guilty on all charges tied to the shootings.
