White/Caucasian male Larry Vehrs, age 75, died on July 3, 2017, in Anchorage, Alaska. That afternoon began with a second welfare check at a residence on the 11000 block of Hillside Drive. Officers had first visited the evening before and found nothing amiss. When they returned around 3:30 p.m. and expanded their search beyond the home, they discovered two bodies—a man and a woman—lying in a wooded area behind the garage.
The scene was quiet, the driveway empty, the house undisturbed, but in the trees the tragedy had already unfolded. Police said there was no broader threat to the public as detectives secured the property and began their work.
By the next day, investigators were calling it a murder-suicide, noting that both people had died of gunshot wounds. On July 6, police identified the man as 75-year-old Larry Vehrs and said he was suspected of fatally shooting his wife, 76-year-old Nadya Vehrs, before taking his own life. The discovery in the brush behind the garage explained why the initial pass through the house had revealed nothing: the violence had taken place out of sight, where the property slopes into trees, and only a more thorough sweep uncovered the bodies. The announcement closed the question of danger to neighbors, but left the question of motive unanswered.
No arrests were made. Police treated Larry Vehrs as the lone suspect, and with his death, there was no one to bring into custody. Records memorializing the incident list both Larry and Nadya among those lost to gun violence on July 3, 2017, and community notes connected to the case echo the police timeline: a welfare check, a second look, the grim find behind the garage, and an investigation that ended with the identification of a husband and wife in a tragic murder-suicide.
