Juneau teens Leotis Phillips and Zoey Clark found dead of gunshot wounds

Two Juneau teenagers who were reported missing on the morning of Aug. 31 were found dead that same afternoon in a wooded area above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway, both from apparent gunshot wounds, according to the Juneau Police Department. A firearm was recovered at the scene, the department said, and the investigation into the deaths remains open as the case develops.

The bodies of Leotis R. Phillips, 16, and Zoey L. Clark, 16, were located at about 2:25 p.m. Monday, Deputy Chief Krag Campbell said in a release. Both were to be sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage for autopsy, and the teenagers' next of kin had been notified before the police made their names public later in the day.

Preliminary information indicates both teenagers died from gunshot wounds, police said, adding that the account is based on an early investigation and is subject to change as the case develops. Investigators are examining the circumstances of the deaths, which remained under investigation Monday evening with no further details released to the public and no explanation offered for how the two teenagers, reported missing only hours earlier, came to be shot in the woods.

Reported missing hours before they were found

Phillips was reported missing from his residence on Kanata Street at about 5:52 a.m., and Clark from her home on Teal Street at about 8:49 a.m., a few hours later, according to the department's information release. Police said the two were believed to be together, and officers worked through the morning to locate them. Both homes are in the Mendenhall Valley, local news outlets reported.

As the search continued, the department issued a public advisory urging residents not to approach the pair because they might be armed. Police said the teenagers were believed to have access to a firearm and asked anyone who spotted them to call rather than attempt any contact, treating the search as a safety concern for the community.

The wooded area sits above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway, near an Alaska Department of Transportation facility and the Alaska Marine Highway System call center, and just behind the Switzer Village Mobile Home Park. The site lies along a coastal stretch of road in Juneau, Alaska's state capital, in the Lemon Creek area of the city, ground that rises just off the highway.

During the search, police described Phillips as an Alaska Native male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing between 140 and 160 pounds, with long black hair often worn in a ponytail. Clark was described as a white female, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds. Both were teenagers who lived in Juneau and attended school in the district.

The department had asked the public for help finding the two, directing tips to its phone line at 907-586-0600 and to an anonymous reporting portal at juneaucrimeline.com. That appeal ended Monday afternoon, when officers found the bodies on the hillside above the highway and the missing-persons case became a death investigation. The two had been missing for only a matter of hours before they were located.

What the police release said

The Juneau Police Department confirmed the deaths in an update to its earlier missing-persons release, issued at about 5:10 p.m. Monday. The update stated the teenagers had been found dead in the wooded area at about 2:25 p.m., that both had apparently died from gunshot wounds and that a firearm was located at the scene. Their bodies, it added, would go to Anchorage for autopsy.

Police stressed that the information reflects a preliminary investigation and is subject to change as the case develops. The department said no additional information was available Monday and that the investigation into the deaths remains ongoing, without offering a motive, a sequence of events or any characterization of the shooting. Officials described the release as preliminary and warned it could be revised.

The bodies were to undergo autopsies at the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage. Police did not say when those examinations would be complete, nor did they release a manner of death beyond the preliminary finding that both teenagers had been shot. Next of kin were notified before any of the details were made public, and the department said its account could still change.

The police release said the Juneau School District plans to make counseling and support services available to students and staff affected by the deaths. Both Phillips and Clark were of high school age, and their loss reached across a district that serves families throughout the capital city, where the two attended school.

A community in mourning

More than 150 friends, family members and teachers gathered for a candlelight vigil at Clark's high school the night after the bodies were discovered. The school stands near the wooded area where the two teenagers were found, a closeness that drew mourners to nearly the same ground where the search had ended hours earlier.

The police department extended its condolences to the families, friends, classmates and others affected by the loss. What had started in the early morning as an effort to find two missing teenagers alive had, by mid-afternoon, become an investigation into how they came to die on the hillside above Glacier Highway. The department said its officers had been searching for the pair when they were found.

Because the juveniles may have access to a firearm, members of the public should not approach them or attempt to contact them,

That warning, issued while officers were still searching, reflected the department's early concern that the pair had access to a gun. A firearm was recovered when the teenagers were found, and police have not said how the shooting happened or provided any fuller account of the deaths beyond the preliminary findings released Monday. Nor have they described the events that led to the two being found dead.

A hillside above the highway

The teenagers had been reported missing from homes in the Mendenhall Valley, and their bodies were found on a wooded hillside in the Lemon Creek area, along the coastal stretch of Glacier Highway. Police have not said how the two came to be there, or when investigators believe they died before the bodies were located.

Two Juneau teenagers found shot in the woods

Phillips and Clark, both 16, were found dead on the afternoon of Aug. 31 in a wooded area above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway in Juneau, hours after each was reported missing from a separate home earlier that day. Both died of apparent gunshot wounds, according to police, and a firearm was recovered nearby. Officers had begun the day searching for the pair alive, warning the public not to approach them.

The Juneau Police Department said the investigation remains ongoing and that no additional information was available. The department has not characterized the shooting or released further details beyond the preliminary finding that both teenagers died from gunshot wounds and that a firearm was found at the scene, cautioning that even those findings could change as the medical examiner completes the autopsies.

A firearm was recovered where the bodies were found, according to police, who said the details released so far come from a preliminary review that could change. The medical examiner's findings from Anchorage had not been made public, and the department gave no timeline for when the autopsies would be complete or when it might release more about the case or the two teenagers.

The police release said the district was arranging counseling and support services for students and staff shaken by the deaths. The police department, meanwhile, kept the case open, saying no additional information was available as the investigation continued into the circumstances that left two 16-year-olds dead in the woods above Glacier Highway.

A timeline of Monday

The department has laid out a narrow sequence for Monday, from the first missing-persons report before 6 a.m. to the afternoon discovery on the hillside and the evening update that confirmed the two teenagers were dead and that a firearm had been found at the scene.

By evening, what had begun as a search for two missing teenagers had become a death investigation. Police recovered a firearm at the scene but gave no account of the hours between the morning reports and the afternoon discovery, and they released the teenagers' names only after next of kin were notified. On Sept. 2, Campbell said the two teenagers were the only people at the site when the deaths occurred, and that an autopsy to determine the circumstances would take time.

In the days after, mourners held a candlelight vigil near the school Clark attended, gathering not far from where the two were found. The investigation into how the teenagers died went on with few public details.

For now, the Juneau Police Department has released little beyond its initial statements, repeating that the findings are preliminary and could change. The autopsies in Anchorage, and a fuller account of what happened on the hillside above Glacier Highway, have yet to come, leaving a community to mourn two 16-year-olds while officers continue an investigation with few public answers. If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day.