A 23-year-old man faces charges of first- and second-degree murder in the death of a woman who was found slain in a Northeast Anchorage apartment on Friday morning.
Eric D. Chaney Jr. was taken into custody Friday night after an hourslong standoff with officers, police said. The case had also prompted an Amber Alert for Chaney’s 8-month-old son, who was missing from the home where officers found the deceased woman. The boy, Ahmiri Chaney, was found safe Friday night.
According to charging documents filed in the case and signed by Assistant District Attorney Matthew S. Heibel, the woman who police found dead in the apartment on the 6000 block of East 12th Avenue had last been heard from Monday. A relative of the woman’s went to her apartment Thursday night and knocked on the door, but there was no answer, according to the charges.
The relative told detectives that on Friday morning, he returned to the apartment, which he found unlocked, and found the woman dead in a bedroom, according to the charging documents. He called 911, and when police arrived at the residence, they saw that the woman had suffered a gunshot wound and there were indications that she had been dead for some time, charges said.
The relative told police that the woman had an infant son who wasn’t anywhere to be found in the home, according to the charging documents, which described Eric Chaney as the woman’s boyfriend. Anchorage police said they won’t publicly identify the woman who was killed because “this crime is domestic violence related.”
Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from outside the apartment that appeared to show Chaney in and out of the home Monday, the charging documents said.
An Amber Alert was issued for the boy Friday afternoon, with Chaney listed as a suspect.
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After speaking with relatives of Chaney’s on Friday, police learned he was at a home on More Lane, the charges said. Police confirmed he was there and, after several hours, breached the home and arrested Chaney “without incident,” according to the charges. Police also found his son, Ahmiri, at the home.
At the time of his arrest, Chaney was wearing some of the same clothing items worn by a man — his face obscured by a hood and a mask — who was seen in surveillance footage exiting the woman’s apartment later Monday with a baby carrier, the charging documents said.
Chaney made an initial court appearance on Saturday afternoon at the Anchorage jail. A judge ordered a $100,000 cash performance bond and $100,000 cash appearance bond as part of his initial bail. The judge also ordered that Chaney have no contact with witnesses in the case.
There will be a separate hearing to set a third-party custodian for Chaney, the judge said.