More than a year after a Spenard apartment complex fire killed three residents and injured many others, prosecutors this week indicted two people on murder and arson charges.
Carleigh Fox, 29, and Andrew Eknaty, 30, are accused of starting the fatal blaze at Royal Suite Apartments to cover up the fact that they fled from police when Fox crashed into a snowbank while intoxicated.
The pair set Fox's 2011 Chevrolet Malibu on fire in a carport to destroy the evidence, the Anchorage district attorney's office said.
Fox and Eknaty left the burning car and went inside, then left without reporting the fire or sounding an alarm, according to Anchorage Assistant District Attorney Michael Ebell.
"These actions resulted in the ultimate destruction of the Royal Suites … the displacement of dozens of people, serious injury to numerous people, the premature birth of one baby, and the death of three individuals," Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay Jr. wrote in a memo filed with the case.
An Anchorage grand jury indicted Fox and Eknaty on Thursday, according to the 38-count indictment.
Fox was apprehended Friday morning, police say.
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Eknaty was taken into custody Friday without incident, the Anchorage Police Department said in an update posted around midday. He was arrested at Peggy's Restaurant on East Fifth Avenue, a police spokeswoman said.
The Feb. 15, 2017, fire seriously injured eight people and displaced dozens. It destroyed one of two buildings in the 30-unit complex on Minnesota Drive near Spenard Road.
The deceased were Vivian Hall, Teuaililo Nua and Laura Kramer. Hall died from burn injuries. Nua died after falling while trying to escape, prosecutors said. Kramer, Hall's roommate, died days later of smoke inhalation.
One of the injured victims was a pregnant woman already burned from the flames in her family's apartment who broke her spine when she jumped from a third-floor window and onto her husband, who broke his leg jumping but still caught both their young sons. The baby was born prematurely by emergency C-section that night.
The family is still in Anchorage — in a one-level house now, Andrew Engelking said Friday. "That was a must."
Engelking, who broke his leg in the fall, still has trouble with his knee and may need a replacement if stem cell shots don't work. He often walks with a cane. His wife, Katie McClain-Engelking, is recovering from her injuries — along with the broken back, third-degree burns covered nearly 20 percent of her body — but still battles feelings of anger, Engelking said.
"She struggles very much to get through the day," he said.
Their sons, now 3 and almost 12, bear emotional scars. One stopped talking for a month. They can't bear the smell of smoke.
Engelking and McClain-Engelking testified before the grand jury before the indictment was handed up, according to the document.
His wife wanted more charges, Engelking said. But he was relieved prosecutors were able to add a charge reflecting the danger to his then-unborn daughter, Liberty, who is now 1 and largely thriving.
"The fact they were even able to bring any charges against them for that was huge," he said.
Prosecutors say the events that led to the fire actually began the evening before.
As Fox waited in the car the night of Valentine's Day, Eknaty stole a bottle of alcohol from a Brown Jug store, according to a bail memo submitted in the case. They started drinking.
Just after 1:30 a.m., Fox crashed the Malibu into a snowbank in front of University of Alaska Anchorage security officers, the memo says. As the officers approached to check on the car's occupants, Fox sped away. She left the front license plate behind in the snow.
Eknaty drove the Malibu to the apartment complex just after 2 a.m. and parked it under the carport, the document says. A fire that started on the passenger side quickly spread.
Surveillance video shows Eknaty running back to the car less than two minutes later, according to the bail memo. He confronts Fox, throws snow on the car a few times, then both flee without notifying anyone.
The first 911 call about the fire didn't come until 2:20 a.m. — seven minutes after the pair seem to notice the flames and leave, the memo says. By then, flames had spread to the west end of the complex.
Fox and Eknaty, questioned by police in early March of 2017 as persons of interest, blamed an engine fire. She told them initially the car was stolen, then later admitted that wasn't true and she was fleeing police while drunk, according to the memo.
The pair each face numerous charges, including nine counts of second-degree murder, first-degree arson, six counts of manslaughter, 16 counts of first-degree assault and two counts of first-degree assault on an unborn child. Fox was also indicted for eluding police.
Six of the murder counts reflect the prosecution's choice to charge the pair under two alternate legal theories: one that they caused the deaths or injuries by lighting the fire; the other that they failed to report it.
Three additional counts reflect the fact that defendants who commit arson are charged with murder if people die in the fire.
Fox was scheduled for an arraignment Friday but wasn't transported to court. The hearing will be continued to another date, most likely Monday, Ebell said.
He credited a large joint investigation involving the Anchorage police and fire departments, Alaska Fire Marshal's Office, Alaska State Troopers, Alaska State Crime Lab, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Anchorage office as well as ATF's National Response Team, which handles high-profile fire investigations around the country.
The extensive fire analysis was part of the delay in prosecuting the case, Ebell said, "to make sure the science was done as thoroughly as possible and we had all the answers we could get."
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