Calderwood pleads guilty to murder of Homer woman

Kirby Calderwood, 36, admitted in court Thursday afternoon that he murdered Homer resident Anesha “Duffy” Murnane in 2019.

In a change of plea hearing at the Kenai Courthouse on Feb. 5, Calderwood pleaded guilty to second-degree murder before Kenai Superior Court Judge Kelly Lawson and Murnane’s family members and friends who were gathered in person or attending the hearing telephonically.

The change of plea comes more than six years after Murnane went missing and four years after Calderwood’s arrest, and follows a plea agreement between the prosecution and defense.

Calderwood was originally indicted for one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, one count of tampering with physical evidence, one count of manslaughter and one count of first-degree sexual assault. Per the agreement, all charges except one count of second-degree murder are to be dismissed following Calderwood’s guilty plea.

According to a Feb. 6 press release from the State of Alaska Department of Law, the crime of murder in the second degree carries a sentence of between 15 and 99 years. Calderwood faces 99 years in prison with 12 years suspended, for an active prison sentence of 87 years, and 10 years’ probation, in line with the plea agreement.

Also per the agreement, Calderwood will be eligible for discretionary parole after serving two-thirds of the 87-year active sentence — about 58 years. At that point, Calderwood would be 94 years old.

He remains in custody at the Wildwood Pretrial Facility in Kenai.

Michael Moberly, Calderwood’s defense attorney, said during Thursday’s hearing that Calderwood’s change of plea “is based upon a lot of time and reflection, review of discovery and discussions with counsel.”

Murnane went missing on Oct. 17, 2019, Homer News previously reported, as she was walking from her home on Main Street to a doctor’s appointment at SVT Health and Wellness in Homer. She never made it to her appointment.

Following her disappearance, the Homer Police Department and many community members conducted searches for Murnane throughout that fall. Murnane was declared dead on June 17, 2021, in a presumptive death jury hearing. Her remains were never recovered.

The release states that HPD led the multi-year investigation with assistance from “several other agencies” including the FBI, the Utah State Police and Alaska State Troopers.

Police alleged in charging documents filed in May 2022, and Moberly confirmed Thursday in reading an attachment to the plea agreement which stipulated facts for the purposes of the hearing, that Calderwood picked up Murnane while she was walking to her appointment. Calderwood knew Murnane, as he worked as a service provider at MainTree Housing, the supported housing apartment complex where Murnane lived. He drove her to a vacant residence known to him, where he assaulted and killed her and later disposed of her body.

Calderwood was arrested in Utah in 2022 after an anonymous caller, later determined to be Calderwood’s current wife, reported a tip to Kenai Peninsula Crime Stoppers and gave “specific information” that he kidnapped, murdered and disposed of Murnane. HPD and the FBI conducted a forensic examination of the crawlspace in the residence and recovered evidence including blood and DNA matching Murnane. Utah police and the FBI also searched Calderwood’s Utah home and found Murnane’s watch in a drawer with a missing person poster of her. Calderwood was extradited back to Alaska in November 2022 and has been held in custody in Kenai since.

“As part of the factual basis for the plea agreement, Calderwood specifically admits and stipulates that, intending to cause serious physical injury or with knowledge that his conduct was substantially certain to cause death or serious physical injury to Murnane, he caused Murnane’s death,” Moberly read from the attachment document.

Prosecutor Scot Leaders from the Kenai District Attorney’s Office asked for Calderwood’s acknowledgment and admission of each of the stipulations in the document in addition to Moberly reading them into the court record.

Lawson reviewed each of the stipulations with Calderwood, as well as his rights, before accepting his guilty plea to second-degree murder. Calderwood stipulated to the facts of the case contained in the attachment document and confirmed that he entered his guilty plea based on his own assessment and without being forced or coerced. He also confirmed that in moving forward with the agreement he would give up his right to appeal any mistakes which may have happened in the case; his right to appeal the sentence within the limits of the plea agreement; his right to seek a sentence reduction; and his right to have a trial before a judge or jury.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 1 at 10 a.m. in Homer.

In a statement given to the Homer News on Friday, Murnane’s uncle Michael Huelsman, speaking for Murnane’s family, thanked supporters in Homer and across Alaska and “friends around the world.”

“Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of the people of Homer, and a determined detective of the Homer Police, her killer was arrested in May 2022. Yesterday, thanks to experienced and hard-working prosecutors, Duffy‘s family and friends attended the hearing, or listened on the line, as her murderer pled guilty in the courtroom in Kenai,” he wrote. “Thank you to everyone in Homer, supporters across Alaska and friends around the world for helping us search when she was first missing, for keeping her case alive, pressing for her killer to be found and more recently attending case hearings.”

Huelsman also said Murnane’s case “reflects a larger crisis in Alaska.”

“For many years, Duffy was a missing and murdered rural Alaskan woman,” he wrote. “She is one of many women who have gone missing and been murdered, particularly those from our rural communities.

“While we are grateful to all who helped find Duffy’s murderer, the long delay after his arrest highlights a significant shortcoming in our criminal justice system. Delayed justice is denied justice — and it also wastes taxpayer money. We need a criminal justice system that investigates these crimes more quickly and ensures that cases are heard more quickly, so that more offenders are held accountable without years of delay.”