APD reports that the last of the known suspects in the August 2017 case of Attempted Murder has turned himself into police.

According to police, Rex Faumui, age 24, contacted APD and they responded to the Anchorage Cemetary, where they took him into custody, questioned him then turned him over to the Anchorage Jail where he was remanded on charges of  Attempted Murder I, Kidnapping, Conspiracy to Commit Kidnapping, Assault I, Robbery I Tampering with Physical Evidence, Hindering Prosecution, and Misconduct Involving Weapons III.

Faumui is the last of the co-conspirators in the 2017 case, the other three suspects, 28-year-old Faamanu “Junior” Vaifanua, 29-year-old Macauther Christmas “Mac” Vaifanua, and 29-year-old Jeffery Ahvan were previously taken into custody on similar indicted charges.

The case had its beginnings in the late afternoon of August 13th, 2017 when police were alerted to a critically injured man, later identified as 24-year-old Abshir Mohamed, who was being treated in the emergency room of Alaska Native Medical Center. He had been dropped off while still bound and in a cage that afternoon.

The investigation by APD revealed that Mohamed had been “punched, kicked, and beaten with a broomstick and an aluminum bat in the garage of an East Anchorage residence.”

An Anchorage Grand Jury indicted the four suspects on the above-mentioned charges on August 24th, 2017, and by August 25th, 2017, police apprehended Ahvan.

That would end the arrests until the summer of 2018. Late night on May 31st, investigators would receive a tip that Faamanu was at a residence on the 700-block of Bridgestone Court. When SWAT responded to that location, they would not find their suspect, but would determine that four persons there had hindered prosecution by helping to hide Faamanu and possibly others involved in the case. All four were subsequently placed under arrest for Hindering. APD identified those persons as David Tiapula (29-years-old), Ann Tiapula (27-years-old), Crystal Sefo (28-years-old), and Salote Leuta (20-years-old).

Following another tip on August 26, over a year after the case began, investigators responded to a residence in the area of Lake Otis Parkway and 88th Avenue and located Faamanu there. Despite attempting to flee, he was taken into custody, questioned, and remanded to the Anchorage Jail. Within hours, Vaifanua went to the  Anchorage Jail and turned himself in.

On Tuesday, the fourth suspect, Faumui, followed suit and turned himself in at the Anchorage Cemetary.

If convicted, the four suspects “face sentences of up to 99 years in prison for the Attempted Murder in the First Degree and Kidnapping charges,” APD revealed.

  2017, abshir mohamed, ahvan, Anchorage, arrests, attempted murder, auguast, beating, custody, Faumui, indictments, kidnapping, vaifanua