A 40-year-old White woman, Shannon Aspen Duke, was found dead on January 5, 2016 in Anchorage, Alaska, in what authorities determined to be a homicide. Shannon Duke and her 18-year-old daughter, Chloe Duke, were both shot and killed inside their south Anchorage home.
Police records describe that a 15-year-old boy, the son of Shannon Duke, was taken into custody that same day in connection with the murders. The call to police came shortly before 7 p.m.
from a male who said he had just returned home to find his wife and daughter deceased on the 3600 block of Spinnaker Drive in south Anchorage. After that, law enforcement searched for and found a vehicle belonging to one of the victims, as well as the suspect in the Big Lake area.
In later proceedings, the court considered whether the 15-year-old suspect, named Corbin Duke, should be tried as an adult. Prosecutors pushed for adult charges, which could have led to very long sentences, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that he would remain in the juvenile justice system. Because of Alaska law's juvenile custody limits, once Corbin Duke turned 20 years old, the court no longer had jurisdiction to impose further detention or supervised release. At a final public adjudication hearing, the court confirmed that no additional jail time or conditions of release would be imposed.
Investigators and court testimony indicated the killings were “cold-blooded, execution-style” murders. Shannon Duke had been taking a nap in her bedroom, with her 3-year-old daughter asleep nearby; Corbin Duke allegedly retrieved a firearm from his room and shot Shannon in the back of the head. After Shannon Duke was shot, Chloe Duke, hearing the gunshot, came to investigate and was shot in the back of the head on a stairway. Following the shootings, Corbin Duke allegedly took his younger sister and drove off in a family truck toward their cabin.
Because of his status as a juvenile and because he aged out of juvenile jurisdiction Corbin Duke faced no further criminal penalties beyond what the juvenile system had already imposed.
