Chip Chick
Those women were recovered before he had been arrested, but after he pleaded guilty in February of 1984, he revealed that he had a shocking number of victims.
“Hansen eventually admitted to murdering a total of 17 women and accompanied investigators on a helicopter flight where he pointed out the gravesites,” the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a press release.
Just 12 of those 17 women were located by the authorities, one of which was Horseshoe Harriet.
Sadly, Horseshoe Harriet’s case grew cold even long after Robert was sentenced to serve 461 years behind bars for his crimes.
This past summer, her DNA was added to a genealogy database, and they were able to figure out her family tree from there.
“Genealogy research by Parabon Nanolabs and ABI indicated that the victim might be a woman named Robin Pelkey,” the Alaska Department of Public Safety said.
“Pelkey had been born in 1963 in Colorado. Additional research identified a few potential relatives of Pelkey’s that currently reside in Alaska and Arkansas.”
“Records indicated that she had been living in Anchorage in the early 1980s when Hansen was active. Pelkey would have been 19 at the time of her murder and no record was found reporting her missing.”
From there, authorities were able to find a relative of Robin’s who was close enough to her that they matched that person’s DNA to Robin’s.
This September, Robin was positively identified, and she was Horseshoe Harriet no more.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety mentioned that there still is one unidentified victim of Robert’s so far that has yet to get her name back; Eklutna Annie.
