Walter Cronkite reports : FBI’s Most Brutal Manhunt for a Double Murderer

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is often seen as the world’s most sophisticated law enforcement agency, tasked with tracking the most elusive and dangerous criminals. In August 2007, Anchorage, Alaska, became the setting for one of the Bureau’s most intense manhunts after the disappearance of 52-year-old nurse practitioner Mindy Schloss. What began as a missing persons report quickly spiraled into a chilling double-murder investigation that exposed the brutality of a repeat offender.

Mindy Schloss was known for her reliability and devotion to her psychiatric patients. When she failed to appear at work in Fairbanks—a 360-mile commute she never missed—her friends and colleagues grew alarmed. Police checked her Anchorage home and found unsettling signs: unpaid bills, a half-empty wine bottle, and an empty garage. Most disturbing of all, her car was missing.

Detective Pam Perue and her team discovered suspicious ATM withdrawals made with Schloss’s debit card shortly after she vanished. Surveillance footage revealed a white male wearing a bandana and baseball cap—clearly attempting to conceal his identity. It was obvious the man was not Schloss. The FBI quickly joined the investigation, focusing their efforts on identifying the masked suspect.

Days later, Schloss’s red Acura was discovered abandoned near Anchorage International Airport. Inside were her belongings—wallet, purse, keys—everything except the missing ATM card. Forensic evidence hinted at foul play, but time was slipping away. The FBI deployed forensic scent dogs, which astonishingly traced Schloss’s scent trail from the ATM directly to the home of 27-year-old Joshua Wade, a name already infamous in Anchorage.

Seven years earlier, Wade had been charged with the brutal beating death of 33-year-old Dela Brown. Despite eyewitness accounts and damning circumstantial evidence, he was acquitted of murder due to unreliable witnesses. He served only three years for evidence tampering. By 2007, Wade was free—and now suspected again.

A search of Wade’s residence revealed Schloss’s ATM receipt, her watch, and clothing matching that seen in the bank footage. The FBI knew they had their man, but without a body, they pursued charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft while quietly preparing a murder case. Wade, sensing the tightening net, went into hiding.

What followed was one of Anchorage’s largest manhunts. The FBI and Anchorage police chased leads daily, often arriving minutes after Wade had fled. His own father made a public plea for him to surrender. Tension mounted until late August, when Wade surfaced at an acquaintance’s apartment. Within hours, he had taken a woman hostage, triggering a dramatic SWAT standoff.

The siege ended with Wade’s arrest, bringing relief to a terrified community. Ultimately, Wade confessed to killing both Dela Brown and Mindy Schloss, ending years of speculation about his involvement.

The case demonstrated the relentless determination of the FBI and local police, who combined technology, canine forensics, and sheer persistence to bring a predator to justice. For the families of the victims, it was a bittersweet end: justice served, but lives lost to a man who had slipped through the cracks once before.