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Benjamin Booshu, a 37-year-old Alaska Native from Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, was identified by Alaska State Troopers as a person of interest in the disappearance of 22-year-old Gladys Aningayou. Gladys’s family reported her missing on Sunday, May 15, 2016; searchers found a body several miles outside Gambell on Monday, May 16 that the state medical examiner later confirmed was hers. Troopers announced on May 20 that Booshu had died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound earlier in the week—reported to have occurred on Tuesday, May 17—before investigators could question him.
Witnesses reportedly saw Booshu shoot himself outside his home, and an autopsy was scheduled by the state medical examiner. With his death, no one was arrested in connection with Aningayou’s disappearance and death. The village’s isolation framed a week of searching, discovery, and a death that ended any immediate prospect of an arrest.
If anyone knew Benjamin Booshu or Gladys Aningayou, or has information about their movements in Gambell in mid-May 2016, please share what is known.