JPD keeping double murder info ‘close to the chest’

Police line tape
Police tape outside the West Juneau condo where double murder victims were found Sunday. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)

The Juneau Police Department doesn’t have much new information to release about the investigation of a double murder discovered Sunday in West Juneau.

“A couple of the pieces of information that we know, we’re playing kind of close to the chest,” said department spokesman Lt. David Campbell.

By withholding that information, the department can evaluate the credibility of tipsters, Campbell said. Discrepancies are bad, corroboration is good.

“Some of the information we have that we do know, we’re not releasing so that we can use that to try to help when we get the tips from the public,” he said.

Campbell laid out what sort of tips the department hopes to get.

“Obviously, if anybody was there when it happened, we’d want to talk to them. Or, if someone, you know, is being told after the fact what’s going on and they have information, we’d like to know. But even just, you know, putting together a timeline of the days leading up to the event for the two people that were killed is important,” he said.

Contact the Juneau Police Department at 586-0600 with tips.

Campbell said the bodies of both victims, 34-year-old Elizabeth K. Tonsmeire and 36-year-old Robert H. Meireis, were sent to Anchorage for autopsies.

Authorities haven’t discussed the victims beyond basic identification. KTOO’s attempts to reach friends and family of the victims have been unsuccessful.

Meireis had a history with Alaska’s justice system. He was out on bail and due for trial in January in Juneau Superior Court, where he was facing a felony charge for drug possession, three misdemeanors, plus probation violations stemming from past assault convictions.

According to written statements by Trooper Jacob Abbott, the charges were the result of his traffic stop in July. The trooper wrote that Meireis was making a U-turn at a red light on Egan Drive. He had a passenger with an outstanding probation violation, which led to a search.

Abbott wrote that he found two small baggies of methamphetamine and a suspected baggy of heroin in Meireis’ sock. He also wrote that Meireis, while handcuffed, kicked him, tried to bite his fingers and dispose of the drugs. That led to additional charges for assault and resisting arrest.

Jeremy Hsieh

Local News Reporter, KTOO

I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?

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