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Left: Kirby Calderwood. Right: Anesha “Duffy” Murnane (Homer Police Department).
A 36-year-old man has been convicted for the murder of a patient he had once known through his employment at an assisted living facility in Alaska. The man disposed of her remains in the crawl space of his girlfriend’s residence and retained a keepsake from the crime.
Kirby Calderwood admitted to second-degree murder in the killing of 38-year-old Anesha “Duffy” Murnane in the town of Homer, located about 220 miles southeast of Anchorage. This plea deal led to the dismissal of eight additional charges, which included first-degree murder, kidnapping, evidence tampering, manslaughter, and sexual assault, as reported by Homer’s NPR affiliate KBBI.
Murnane, who was living with bipolar disorder, vanished on October 17, 2019, from her residence at Main Tree Housing. Her disappearance gripped the small Kenai Peninsula community, leading to an extensive search involving law enforcement, firefighters, and local residents. Despite these efforts, her body has never been located.
The investigation saw a breakthrough in 2022 when a Crime Stopper tip implicated Calderwood in the kidnapping, murder, and concealment of Murnane’s body. It was revealed that Calderwood had been employed at the assisted living facility in 2018. His wife informed authorities that Calderwood confessed to killing Murnane and hiding her body in his then-girlfriend’s crawl space before relocating to Utah.
Subsequent searches of the crawl space revealed DNA evidence belonging to Murnane, corroborating the confession.
Police in Ogden, Utah, executed several search warrants. During one of those searches, at Calderwood’s home, “a small ladies Timex watch with a black band was found in Calderwood’s clothes dresser drawer,” according to affidavits filed in the case obtained by Anchorage NBC affiliate KTUU
“Calderwood kept Murnane’s wristwatch, that would light up when a button on the side was pushed, and that it may have been a Timex,” the affidavit quotes the anonymous tip as alleging. “Photos of Murnane show a small black watch.”
“This exactly matches the watch the Kenai Crime Stoppers TIPS caller had described and Murnane’s mother and stepfather had described,” the affidavit reportedly states. “Additionally, a missing-person flyer was found next to the same dresser.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Calderwood allegedly told investigator Matt Haney that he knew Murnane when he worked at the facility.
Over the course of the investigation, the Homer Police Department says it fielded hundreds of tips. Eventually, however, one of those tips named Calderwood specifically and, according to police, included details that allowed investigators to hone in on their suspect.
In an affidavit filed by Haney, who was hired by the Homer Police Department, two women previously involved in romantic relationships with the defendant said that Calderwood had committed sexual violence against them — including rape. Those allegations were said to have been made to the U.S. Army. It is unclear what action, if any, the armed forces agency took in response to those claims. One of those women said Calderwood had admitted to hurting animals since he was a child. The affidavit also cites other women who made similar claims about the defendant’s alleged sexual violence and disturbing behavior.
“Calderwood has an extensive history of abusive violent sexual behavior towards women and fantasized about torturing and killing someone,” Haney reportedly alleged in that court document.
One tip mentioned in the affidavit clued investigators into specific details that were allegedly directly relevant to the Murnane case.
The affidavit reportedly goes on to say Calderwood told the tipster that he was driving around looking for his victim when he spotted her, picked her up in his blue Subaru, and brought her to the empty house. There, the defendant allegedly told his victim that he needed to get a phone charger from inside and that she could come in while he retrieved it. Murnane is said to have accepted the offer. She was subsequently tortured and killed, the affidavit says. Calderwood allegedly further admitted that he threw Murnane’s cellular phone in a lake before concealing her body and leaving it in a dumpster.
Calderwood is slated to be sentenced on July 1. The plea agreement calls for a 99-year prison sentence with 12 years suspended.