Trial of Maine man in Alaska woman's death underway

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Thursday, January 20th, 2022 10:21am

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FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The trial of a Maine man who is charged in the death of a woman at an Alaska university in the 1990s is underway after numerous delays.

Forty-seven-year-old Steven Downs, of Auburn, is on trial for charges including murder and sexual assault in the death of 20-year-old Sophie Sergie in 1993.

The Sun Journal reports the trial is expected to last six weeks.

Downs was a freshman at University of Alaska at Fairbanks at the time of Sergie’s death.

She had been staying with a friend who was a student at the university when her body was discovered in a bathroom.

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