(Anchorage, AK) – An Anchorage grand jury indicted 52-year-old Lawrence Andrew Lekanoff on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor on Feb. 23. Lekanoff is charged with sexually abusing a five-year-old child in an Anchorage park in 1994.

The Anchorage Police Department investigated the case in 1994; efforts to identify a suspect were unsuccessful at that time and the case went cold. The sexual assault kit collected in the case was tested in 2020 as part of the Capital Project, a State initiative to analyze untested sexual assault kits collected by 47 police departments statewide.

When the sexual assault kit collected in this case was tested, DNA evidence linked to a potential suspect was identified. The Anchorage Police Department (Cold Case Unit) reopened the investigation, and the Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions presented the case to the grand jury.

If convicted at trial, Lekanoff faces a sentence of up to 30 years imprisonment. Lekanoff was arrested in the Lower 48 on Feb. 27, and he faces extradition to the State of Alaska.

These charges are only allegations and are not evidence of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

  1994, Alaska, Anchorage, cold case, dna, lawrence lekanoff, minor, park, sexual abuse