Press Release
Ronald Fischer Sentenced to Serve 15 Years for 1995 Sexual Assault of 17 Year Old
November 21, 2025
(Anchorage, AK) – Today, Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson sentenced 53-year-old Ronald Fischer to serve 25 years with 10 years suspended for the Sexual Assault in the First-Degree conviction for the 1995 sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl in Anchorage. Fischer was found guilty by an Anchorage jury in May 2025.
In the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 1995, the then-17-year-old victim reported she was sexually assaulted. She reported that she was walking home from a friend’s house and while walking on Northway Avenue, a man began following her and asking where she was going. The man then grabbed her by her hair and her coat. The victim was able to get out of her coat and ran, however, the man caught her, again grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her to a fenced area behind a nearby restaurant. There, the man forcibly sexually assaulted her at knifepoint. After the incident, the victim ran toward a nearby building that, at the time, was the Anchorage Daily News building, and asked a mail carrier for help. Despite investigation at the time, APD detectives could not identify a suspect.
A sexual assault kit was collected from the victim at the Anchorage Native Medical Hospital the night of the sexual assault, and preserved in Anchorage Police Department evidence, but it was not tested for DNA. At the time, there was no centralized DNA database available, so without a suspect identified, there was no way to search for a DNA match. In 2002, Alaska signed on to CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), which is an FBI database of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons.
In 2022, the sexual assault kit in this case was tested, as part of the Alaska Capital Project, and led to a match in the CODIS DNA database to Ronald Fischer. The Alaska State Crime Detection Lab confirmed the match by comparing the DNA profiles from semen samples collected in the victim’s sexual assault kit to a known DNA sample taken from Ronald Fischer. The victim was shown a lineup containing Fischer’s photo, and she was able to identify him as her assailant after nearly three decades.
The case was initially investigated by former Anchorage Police Department Detective Elmo Hill. When the case was reopened in 2022, it was investigated by Anchorage Police Department Detective Brett Sarber of the APD Cold Case Unit, who testified at trial. Assistant Attorneys General Erin McCarthy and Amy Wang of the Office of Special Prosecutions prosecuted the case for the State.
At the sentencing hearing, the victim read a statement that Judge Peterson stated was, "clearly one of the most impactful, powerful, well-thought-out statements that I have heard in the time I have been serving as a judge." In his sentencing remarks, Judge Peterson noted that the crime was a “nightmare scenario” for the victim, and the “type of case everybody fears, everybody worries about, and this Court fortunately sees very infrequently.”
Because the offense took place in 1995, Fischer was sentenced according to 1995 sentencing laws, which were less strict than sentencing laws that would apply to similar crimes committed today.
The Department of Law thanks the Anchorage Police Department, the Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, and Bode Technologies for their partnership and dedication throughout the life of this case.
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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.