Sterling woman, 39, arrested on drug-related murder charge in April Soldotna death

Soldotna police arrested a 39-year-old Sterling woman Oct. 27 on a charge of second-degree murder in a death officers first responded to in April, the department said in a press release Wednesday.

Officers went to a local residence at about 8:39 am April 14 on a report of a death. The department called it a suspicious death and said the arrest followed a lengthy investigation. Neither the police release nor the court filing identifies who died or how.

The Alaska court system's list of criminal charges filed describes the murder count as second-degree murder involving a controlled substance. That part of state law covers someone who knowingly manufactures or delivers a controlled substance when another person dies as a direct result of ingesting it. The law does not require a culpable mental state as to the death itself.

The charge is an unclassified felony. State law provides an affirmative defense that reduces it to a class A felony if the defendant sought help in good faith, stayed at the scene and cooperated, and the offense involved small quantities not delivered for profit.

The woman also faces four drug charges, police said: one count each of misconduct involving controlled substances in the second and third degrees, and two counts in the fifth degree. The court filing describes the second-degree count as manufacture or delivery of methamphetamine and both fifth-degree counts as possession of any amount of certain controlled substances.

The filing lists Soldotna as the location. It gives an offense date of April 14 for the murder charge and the second- and third-degree drug counts, and May 6 for the two fifth-degree counts.

She is being held without bail at Wildwood Pretrial Facility.

The department said the charges are accusations and that the woman is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.