Bonnie Craig had studied the night before. On September 28, 1994, she left home to catch a bus to the University of Alaska Anchorage, where she had an exam in a seven o’clock class. Someone saw her walking toward the stop. She never got to the university. [1]
A hiker found Bonnie that afternoon below a cliff at McHugh Creek, south of Anchorage. She was 18. The medical examiner found that she’d suffered several blows to the head and had injuries consistent with trying to protect herself. Investigators recovered biological material and developed a DNA profile. They could keep the profile on file. What they didn’t have was a name to go with it. [1]
The reports from McHugh Creek
Alaska State Troopers heard from people who thought they might have seen Bonnie near the creek. One account put a woman who resembled her with people who appeared to be hiking. Witnesses described a dark vehicle near the parking area, but their accounts didn’t all describe the same kind of vehicle. Nobody established how Bonnie had gone from a walk to the bus stop to a spot twelve miles outside Anchorage. [1]
The autopsy also supplied evidence of a possible sexual assault. The investigator could put the DNA profile into a national database, where it could be checked against profiles added later. The sightings offered no clear way forward. For twelve years, the DNA had no identified source. [1]
The name came from New Hampshire
In 2006, the database returned a match to Kenneth Dion, who was serving time in a New Hampshire prison. Troopers checked that he’d been in Alaska in September 1994 and asked a New Hampshire court for a warrant to take a fresh sample. The comparison confirmed the DNA connection. When a trooper showed Dion a photograph of Bonnie, Dion said he didn’t recognize her. He said he’d never met her. [1]
At trial, his defense gave jurors a different account: Dion had met Bonnie, the sexual contact had been consensual, and he hadn’t caused her death. His lawyers suggested the fatal injuries could have resulted from an accident. Prosecutors pointed to the autopsy findings, the earlier denial and other evidence to contest that account. The doctor who examined Bonnie described the head wounds as blows made by a single object and found an injury more consistent with assault than consensual contact. The lab could identify whose DNA was present. The jury had to decide what the evidence, taken together, showed about how it came to be there. [1]
What the warrant left out
On appeal, Dion argued that the warrant application had left out information that cut against the state’s account. An investigator had included a report of a dark passenger car in the McHugh Creek parking lot and a traffic ticket Dion had received in a dark Ford. Dion’s lawyers pointed to other vehicle descriptions and to the report about the possible hiking group. [1]
The Alaska Court of Appeals put the omitted material back into its assessment of the application. It found that the reported sightings and differences in vehicle descriptions didn’t cancel out the DNA match, the autopsy findings or the evidence that Dion was in Alaska at the time. There was still sufficient reason for the New Hampshire court to issue the warrant. In 2015, the Alaska court affirmed the convictions. [1]
One killing and a 124-year sentence
Jurors found Dion guilty in 2011 under several murder theories and on a charge of first-degree sexual assault. The murder verdicts merged into one conviction for Bonnie’s killing. The judge imposed 99 years for murder and another 25 for the sexual assault. Dion continued to deny responsibility at sentencing. [1] [2]
The confirmation in New Hampshire answered a question investigators couldn’t answer in 1994. It gave them somebody to interview and gave prosecutors evidence to take to court. Bonnie’s walk to the bus stop is still the last confirmed sighting of her alive in the appellate account. She had an exam to get to, and that was the direction she was headed. [1]
Case brief
Anchorage / McHugh Creek, Alaska · 1994
- Recorded outcome
- Kenneth Dion convicted in 2011 and sentenced to 124 years; Alaska appellate decision affirmed in 2015.
Key moments
People in this case
- Bonnie Craig
Murder victim
Photo at source · CBS News · personal photograph - Kenneth Dion
Convicted of Bonnie Craig’s murder
Photo at source · CBS News · KTVA courtroom photograph
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The sample preserved through the years
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Preserved biological evidence connected the cold case with Dion after a database lead.
No actual profile shown. Association alone does not describe consent or the sequence of the attack.
The two explanations
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Dion’s denial of knowing Bonnie could be compared with his later claim of consensual contact.
No transcript, confession or handwriting reproduced. The later account was his defense.
A warrant tested with omitted details
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The court examined omitted witness information and concluded it did not defeat probable cause.
Illustrates the warrant ruling, not a conclusion that every eyewitness account was accurate.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Dion v. State, memorandum opinion 61441994 timeline, recovery, DNA match, search warrant, trial theories, merged convictions, sentence and appeal.
- Alaska Public Media: Dion sentenced to 124 years in Craig caseVictim identity and sentence; defendant's continued denial.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 677 words