Former Arkansan slain by serial killer in Alaska 37 years ago, DNA confirms

Authorities have identified the victim of an Alaskan serial killer as a woman with Arkansas ties.

Authorities were able to confirm the woman’s identity as Robin Pelkey, who was previously known as “Horseshoe Harriet,” after a new DNA profile was generated and uploaded into a public access genealogy database in August, according to a news release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Robert Hansen was initially suspected of having murdered four women in south-central Alaska whose bodies were found between 1980 and 1983, the release states.

Hansen agreed to plead guilty to those murders in addition to other charges.

He later admitted to killing 17 women. Twelve of their bodies have been found and recovered, said public information officer Austin McDaniel.

Eleven of Hansen’s victims have been identified and five women’s bodies were not found, McDaniel said.

Using several close matches, authorities constructed a family tree and confirmed Pelkey’s identity after Arkansas State Police obtained a DNA sample from a close relative, according to the release. Pelkey was estimated to be 19 at the time of her death.

Pelkey, who was born in 1963, had moved to central Arkansas as a teenager from Anchorage, and moved back in the early 1980s to live with her father and stepmother, when Hansen was active, McDaniel said.

Shortly after, Pelkey was homeless, authorities said. There is no record that Pelkey was reported missing, according to authorities, and no indication she was alive after 1984.

The woman was referred to as “Horseshoe Harriet” for 37 years after her body was found near Horseshoe Lake in Alaska, McDaniel said.

It’s unknown where her surviving family members in Arkansas live, McDaniel said. Her next of kin expressed disinterest in speaking with the media to Alaska State troopers, he said.

Hansen died in prison in 2014 of natural causes.