River Aspelund, a 23-year-old from Nikiski, was convicted last month for the 2022 murder of his mother.
According to a Sept. 8 release from the State Department of Law, a Kenai jury after a two-week trial convicted Aspelund on Aug. 22 of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence. Aspelund was indicted on those same charges in September 2022, per previous Clarion reporting.
Alaska State Troopers said, in 2022, that they’d been called for a welfare check on Aspelund’s mother, Jeryl Bates, around 9 p.m. on Sept. 6. When they arrived, they found the woman dead inside the home she shared with Aspelund in Nikiski. According to the 2025 release from the department, Bates was found with “apparent gunshot and knife wounds.”
A revolver and large knife were found in a vehicle outside the residence, the release says. Blood found on the revolver, as well as on Aspelund’s clothes that day, was matched to Bates. Shoe prints at the scene matched those of the shoes Aspelund was wearing.
Sentencing for Aspelund is scheduled for Dec. 29, and he faces a sentencing range of 30 to 99 years for the first-degree murder charge alone, the release says.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
