In the Alaska Native village of Gambell on remote St. Lawrence Island, 37-year-old male Alaskan Native Benjamin Booshu was named by Alaska State Troopers as a person of interest in the disappearance of a young woman. Troopers announced on Friday, May 20, 2016, that he had killed himself earlier in the week; according to the agency's spokesman, he shot himself outside his home on Tuesday, May 17, before investigators could question him. Authorities also said they believed he was the last person seen with the missing woman.
The death of 37-year-old male Benjamin Booshu unfolded alongside an urgent search for 22-year-old Gladys Aningayou, whose family reported her missing on Sunday, May 15. Searchers found a body several miles outside Gambell on Monday, May 16, and the state medical examiner later confirmed it was Aningayou. Troopers publicly connected the threads on May 20, noting both the identification of the victim and that 37-year-old male Benjamin Booshu—being sought for questioning—had already died by suicide.
Witnesses saw 37-year-old male Benjamin Booshu shoot himself outside his home, and the state medical examiner scheduled an autopsy for him as investigators continued to piece together the timeline of events. With his death, there were no arrests made in connection with Aningayou's disappearance and death, and no suspect was taken into custody.
Public memorial listings later recorded 37-year-old male Benjamin Booshu as having died in Gambell in May 2016, noting a self-inflicted gunshot wound and reflecting the uncertainty over the precise date—an uncertainty echoed by the Troopers' announcement that came on May 20 while stating the act occurred on May 17. The setting remained the same: Gambell, one of two villages on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, a place whose isolation framed a week of searching, grim discovery, and a death that closed the door on any immediate prospect of an arrest.
