Michael Silka

Michael Alan Silka (born August 20, 1958 in Hoffman Estates , Illinois , † May 19, 1984 in Alaska ) was an American murderer, alleged serial killer and responsible for the most deadly mass murder in the history of the state of Alaska.

Early life

Michael Silka grew up in Hoffman Estates , Illinois and graduated from Hoffman Estates High School in 1976 . He then entered the United States Army and reached the rank of Specialist Fourth Class (Spc4) . He was u. a. stationed in Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks , Alaska, worked as a helicopter mechanic and had received training as a sniper .

Silka came into conflict with the law several times in the course of his life. In October 1975 he was arrested while breaking into a sports shop in Des Plaines and sentenced to 30 days in prison. Between February 1977 and July 1983 he was also found several times with loaded firearms in public or at traffic controls in Hoffman Estates and South Barrington , which is why he was arrested for "wrongful use of firearms". After his honorable exit from the Army, he traveled around Alaska as a traveler. He drove his car, camped out in the open, lived off odd jobs, hunted and fished. In Alaska, such people are also known as the "End of the Roaders".

Manley mass murder

Silka arrived in Manley Hot Springs ( Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area ) in his car on May 13, 1984 and camped near a boat dock on the Tanana River , about three miles from Manley. Local residents later testified that Silka had said in conversations that she wanted to reach Denali National Park as a trapper . He is said to have been very open-minded towards the locals and even went hunting with one of his later victims.

On May 17, between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. local time, Silka shot and killed anyone approaching the pier and threw the bodies into the river. His first victims were Larry McVey (37) and Dale Madajski (22), who wanted to go on a fishing trip, as well as Albert Hagen (27), who cleared the jetty of scrub and bushes. He then killed Lyman Klein (36), his sixth month pregnant wife Joyce Klein (30) and their two-year-old son Marshall Klein when the three of them wanted to go on a family excursion by boat. Most recently, he shot Fred Burke (30), who was returning from trapping and with whom he was already hunting, and then drove his boat south across the Tanana River.

The disappearance of seven people did not go unnoticed for long, and the next day the first reports of missing persons were registered with the local police. Since it is not uncommon in this area and at this time of year that anglers and hunters, for example, stay away longer than agreed, the worst was not expected straight away. Only when the police checked the pier during the day and discovered traces of blood did the alarm go off. Since Silka had camped here and his car was also there, a search for him was initiated.

Pursuit and deadly gunfire

While some officers observed Silka's car , planes and helicopters were used to look for Silka herself. Officials suspected the fugitive to be in an area of ​​50,000 square miles. Two days after the murders, Silka was finally located by the crew of a Piper PA-18 at around 3 p.m. local time . He was in the boat of murder victim Fred Burke on the Zitziana River , a tributary of the Tanana River, about 25 miles southeast of Manley Hot Springs.

Two helicopters with officers from the SERT reaction force immediately took off to cut off Silka's path. The officers had removed the doors of the helicopters in order to dismount more quickly and, if necessary, to shoot immediately. One of the two helicopters was supposed to fly over Silka's position and drop a sniper in front of him, then the officers in the two helicopters were supposed to flank Silka from two sides, so that he could have been attacked from three sides in the event of a possible resistance.

However, since Silka's position could not be found immediately, the helicopters split up to search for him. In a clearing, Silka suddenly stepped out of hiding and fired a shot from his .30-06 Springfield hunting rifle with a quadruple telescopic sight, which penetrated the cabin ceiling of one of the helicopters. The two SERT officers of this helicopter responded to the fire with two M16A1 assault rifles , but missed their target due to the not calculated lead angle . Shortly afterwards, Silka and the two SERT officers fired again and fired 25 shots within just two seconds. Silka's single shot killed SERT officer Troy Lynn Duncan (34), splintered the helicopter fairing and injured Captain Donald Lawrence in the face. Silka, however, was hit by eight shots, including three in the upper body and one each in the neck and head, and was also killed immediately.

Processing and suspicion of further killings

Why Silka murdered the seven people at the pier remained unexplained. The police under investigator Sam Barnard assumed that he might have got into an argument with one of the first victims and therefore killed the men. When removing the corpses, he may have been surprised by the Klein family, whom he then turned off as witnesses. He probably only killed Frank Burke to get his ready-to-go boat, with which he then escaped from the crime scene.

After the shooting, it was revealed that Silka was already wanted by the Fairbanks police . He is said to have killed his then neighbor Roger Culp (34) there on April 28, who was missing. The police had found blood on Silka's property, which Silka had declared that an animal had been slaughtered. When the police wanted to pick up Silka for questioning, he had already disappeared. The blood found was examined and was ultimately found to be of human origin. Culp's body was never found.

Witnesses also confirmed seeing Silka with two local men in his vehicle on the Elliott Highway in Alaska on May 11 ; these two men were subsequently missing. The police also believe it is possible that Silka also killed a man in North Dakota and two women in Canada . Since some of the victims accused of him were never found and Silka could no longer be questioned about the cases, the exact number of victims is unknown.

Trivia

Michael Alan Silka was buried, not without controversy, with military honors at the Sitka National Cemetery. The Army justified this on the grounds that he had served honorably in the Army and had also been honored from the Army. Thus, it does not matter which acts he was guilty of afterwards.

State trooper Troy Duncan was posthumously awarded the Alaska Police Medal of Valor and buried near his mother's grave in Texas . His name was immortalized on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, DC and the Department of Public Safety in Anchorage , among others . His badges were given to his relatives; In addition, a resolution was passed to no longer assign its brand number # 233 .

Lieutenant Jeff Hall, who fired the fatal shots at Silka, resigned from the Alaska State Troopers and became an instructor for law enforcement agencies across the United States.

The criminal case is presented in three books:

• Murder at 40 Below: True Crime Stories from Alaska by Tom Brennan
• Forgotten Heroes: Police Officers killed in Alaska 1850-1997 by William Wilbanks
• Murders in the United States by R. Barri Flowers and H. Loraine Flowers

The shooting between Silka and the helicopter crew was made into an episode of the history documentary series Sniper: Deadliest Missions under the title "Death from Above" .

Web links

• Suspect killed in Shootout, News Sentinel
• Murderpedia
• Michael Alan Silka and the Firefight at Manley