On the morning of July 3, 2016, a bicyclist riding along the Ship Creek bike path near North Post Road in Anchorage, Alaska, discovered the bodies of 20-year-old female White / Caucasian Brianna Foisy and 41-year-old Jason Netter Sr. They had both been fatally shot. Brianna Foisy was living transiently at the time and had a history of substance abuse.
Investigators recovered ballistic fragments at the scene but no shell casings, which is consistent with a revolver being used.
Witnesses in the area reported having heard gunshots between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. earlier that morning. The area in which they were found was a bike path near Ship Creek, west of North Post Road and Viking Drive.
For some time the case was unsolved. Later in 2016, police discovered that the weapon used in the murders of Brianna Foisy and Jason Netter Sr. was a Colt Python. 357 revolver. Ballistics testing eventually showed that weapon was linked to at least four other homicides in Anchorage over the summer of 2016.
The suspect in the killings was identified as 40-year-old James Dale Ritchie. On November 12, 2016, Anchorage police officers Arn Salao and Sgt. Marc Patzke confronted him after he was linked to a separate shooting involving Officer Salao. Ritchie opened fire on Officer Salao; Salao was shot multiple times. Officers returned fire, and James Dale Ritchie was killed in the shootout.
By forensic and investigative measures, police concluded that James Dale Ritchie was responsible for the murders of Brianna Foisy and Jason Netter Sr., among the other killings linked by the Colt Python revolver. The case is now considered solved in terms of identifying the perpetrator.
