Do you know who murdered Michael Attwood? Michael W. Atwood, whose surname was rendered as “Attwood” in several contemporaneous news reports, was a 25-year-old White/Caucasian man associated with Big Lake, Alaska. His death occurred on November 2, 2019, in the Wasilla area rather than Anchorage, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s current unresolved-homicide records. The state lists his case under number AK19075656 and connects it to the deaths of Donna M. Campos and Alyssa M.
Jimenez, who are recorded under the same date, location, and case number. Atwood’s body and that of Donna Marie Campos were discovered off Knik Knack Mud Shack Road in Wasilla on November 3.
As troopers worked the scene, the investigation quickly expanded beyond the two bodies. Authorities were trying to locate Alyssa Jimenez of Big Lake because she had reportedly been with Atwood and Campos earlier, before their deaths, and investigators were concerned for her safety. On November 5, at approximately 2:30 p.m., troopers discovered another body near mile 10 of Knik-Goose Bay Road. The remains were tentatively identified as Jimenez, and authorities said the discovery was connected to the investigation into Atwood and Campos. Investigators came to regard the three deaths as related homicides, turning what began as the discovery of two deceased people along a remote Wasilla-area road into a triple-homicide investigation.
The investigation eventually focused public attention on Juan Camarena, whom Alaska State Troopers identified as a person of interest and wanted to question about the three killings. Camarena was not arrested for Atwood’s death. Instead, after troopers publicly sought his whereabouts, Camarena contacted authorities and arranged to meet them in Wasilla. Troopers took him into custody without incident at about 11:30 a.m. on November 14, 2019, on an unrelated federal warrant. Contemporary reporting continued to describe him as a person of interest in the deaths of Atwood, Campos, and Jimenez, but the custody action itself was not a homicide arrest and did not represent a murder charge.
The homicide investigation nevertheless produced evidence that led to a separate federal prosecution of Camarena. On November 20, 2019, a federal grand jury indicted him on one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska explicitly identified him at that time as a person of interest in the November 2 Wasilla triple homicide. Investigators searching his trailer had found 16 rounds of ammunition: twelve 9mm rounds in a bathroom cubby, a. 40-caliber round in a magazine on a bedroom shelf, another 9mm round in the living room, a. 45-caliber round in a bedroom closet, and an additional 9mm round in a cubby behind the toilet. Federal authorities said his prior felony record prohibited him from possessing that ammunition. The indictment arose from evidence found during the triple-homicide investigation, but prosecutors did not accuse him in that indictment of killing Atwood or either of the other victims.
Additional criminal allegations surfaced against Camarena while the homicide investigation was underway. Alaska authorities charged him separately with first-degree sexual assault, first-degree sex trafficking, and third-degree assault offenses based on alleged conduct predating the killings. At his November 26 arraignment in Palmer, he pleaded not guilty to those accusations. Those charges were reported because evidence supporting them emerged while troopers were investigating the three deaths, but they were not charges for the murders of Atwood, Campos, or Jimenez. The distinction is significant: although Camarena was detained, indicted federally, and prosecuted on allegations discovered in the course of the broader investigation, the available public record does not show that authorities charged him with Atwood’s homicide.
The homicide itself remains unresolved. The Alaska Department of Public Safety continues to list Michael W. Atwood, Donna M. Campos, and Alyssa M. Jimenez together among the state’s unresolved homicides, all under case AK19075656 and all associated with Wasilla on November 2, 2019. The department explains that cases on this list remain unsolved and that cases may be removed when they are accepted for prosecution by state or federal prosecutors. Atwood’s continued presence on that official list therefore indicates that, despite the identification and detention of a person of interest and the unrelated criminal cases that followed, no prosecution for his killing has resolved the case. No publicly documented murder arrest, trial, or conviction has brought a legal conclusion to Atwood’s death, and the person or people responsible for the three killings have not been publicly established through a homicide conviction.
