Gone Without a Trace: The Disappearance of Linda Skeek

Author

Benjamin Hayes

Publication Date

November 8, 2025

Linda Louise Skeek was 32 years old when she disappeared from Anchorage, Alaska, in the earliest hours of January 1, 2016, walking out into freezing weather after an argument with her husband over the keys to their car. She was a mother of three and a member of the Tlingit tribe who had recently relocated with her family from Southeast Alaska so she could take a job with NANA Regional Corporation. She has never been seen or heard from since that night, and despite blood found throughout her own apartment, a neighbor's account of threats and struggle, and a husband who bought cleaning supplies within hours of her vanishing, a jury ultimately acquitted him of every charge connected to her disappearance.

A Marriage Already Strained

Thomas and Linda Skeek had been married for more than eight years by the time they moved to Anchorage in mid-2015, relocating specifically so Linda could take up her new position at NANA Regional Corp while Thomas stayed home caring for their two elementary school aged children. By the defense's own account at trial, the marriage was already under significant strain by that point, with both spouses involved in extramarital affairs and Linda engaging in what the defense characterized as heavy weekend drinking that frequently kept her away from home for extended stretches.

A New Year's Eve That Turned Ugly

On the night of December 31, 2015, the Skeek family spent time together watching the movie Minions on a DVD player inside their new Lincoln Navigator SUV before heading downtown to watch the New Year's fireworks. Surveillance footage later reviewed by investigators showed Thomas dropping Linda off at various Anchorage bars throughout the evening while he waited outside in the vehicle with their children. After midnight, the family returned to their apartment on Morningside Loop, where Linda and Thomas got into an argument. According to the defense's account, Linda wanted to go back out to the bars, but Thomas refused to hand over the car keys given how intoxicated she was. She left the apartment on foot, walking, in the defense's own characterization, angry and drunk into the snowy Anchorage night.

A Neighbor's Account

A neighbor living near the Skeek apartment later testified that early on the morning of January 1, they heard Thomas yelling threats to kill his wife, followed by the sounds of a physical struggle and repeated thudding noises. This testimony would become one of the most significant pieces of evidence prosecutors presented at trial, offering a direct, if secondhand, window into what may have happened inside the apartment after Linda supposedly walked out on her own.

Blood Throughout the Home

Investigators who searched the Skeek residence found what they described as extensive physical evidence suggesting violence had occurred there. Blood was discovered near the entrance to a basement crawl space, splattered across a kitchen wall, and seemingly cleaned from a light switch located near the apartment's back door. Chemical testing throughout the home revealed smear markings that glowed under treatment, indicating an apparent effort to wipe blood away from multiple surfaces. Investigators also recovered a clump of dark hair inside the crawl space itself, along with clothing bearing unusually heavy bleach stains found sitting inside the family's clothes dryer. Separately, Thomas himself displayed a mark consistent with a human bite on his arm, along with bruising visible on his neck, collarbone, back, and hip.

Cleaning Supplies Bought Within Hours

Prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Thomas purchased Clorox, ammonia, and other cleaning products at a local Fred Meyer store just hours after Linda's disappearance on January 1. This purchase, combined with the physical evidence of cleaned and bleached surfaces found throughout the apartment, formed a central part of the state's theory that Thomas had disposed of Linda's body and then actively worked to clean up whatever evidence remained behind before ever reporting her missing to police.

A Withdrawn Protective Order

The Skeeks' relationship had already produced a documented record of trouble well before that New Year's night. In November 2015, roughly two months before Linda disappeared, she had filed for a protective order against Thomas. That order was later withdrawn, a pattern common in relationships marked by domestic conflict, but one that nonetheless left a formal record of concern investigators would later point to as part of the broader picture of the marriage's volatility.

Charges and a Long Wait for Trial

Thomas Skeek was formally charged with first degree murder, second degree murder, and tampering with physical evidence in connection with Linda's disappearance. He remained held in jail for approximately three years while awaiting trial, a lengthy pretrial detention reflecting both the seriousness of the charges and the complexity of prosecuting a homicide case in the total absence of a body.

A Rare No-Body Trial

When Thomas Skeek's case finally went to trial in early 2019, it stood as one of only a small handful of no-body homicide prosecutions attempted in Alaska since the 1970s. The trial itself lasted several weeks, with prosecutors presenting the accumulated circumstantial case, the neighbor's account of threats and struggle, the blood evidence found throughout the home, the bite mark and bruising on Thomas's own body, and the cleaning supplies purchased within hours of Linda's disappearance. Defense attorney Emily Cooper pushed back forcefully against this entire narrative, telling jurors directly that the state could not even prove Linda Skeek was actually dead, let alone that her husband had killed her. Cooper argued that this remained, at its core, still a missing person case rather than a proven homicide, suggesting that Linda may have encountered any number of dangers after walking off alone, intoxicated, into the snow and cold. The defense further argued that police had delayed properly investigating for several days after Linda's disappearance was first reported, a delay that may have allowed crucial evidence to disappear entirely before it could ever be collected.

An Acquittal on Every Count

After deliberating for three days, the jury returned its verdict in March 2019, finding Thomas Skeek not guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder, the lesser included charge of manslaughter, and tampering with evidence. Despite the extensive physical evidence presented at trial, the jury's unanimous acquittal on every single charge meant Thomas walked free after roughly three years spent in jail awaiting a trial that ultimately produced no conviction of any kind.

A Family Left to Search Alone

While Thomas awaited his eventual trial, Linda's own family took matters into their own hands, with her mother, Laura Sheldon, and her aunt, Myrna Brown, leading independent search efforts around Anchorage, including combing wooded areas near the Morningside Loop apartment where Linda was last seen. Family members flew in from out of state after learning of Thomas's arrest through news coverage, determined to search for Linda themselves rather than simply waiting on the outcome of a criminal case that offered no guarantee of ever locating her remains. Laura Sheldon spoke publicly about her belief that her daughter was, in some sense, still crying out to be found, expressing a hope that Linda would not be found in pieces scattered across some remote location. Sheldon also spoke about her desire to gain custody of Linda's children, who had by that point entered foster care, telling reporters simply that she wanted her grandchildren back. The family's search efforts drew attention from people claiming psychic abilities, who contacted them with various theories about where Linda might be found, though none of these leads ever produced any actual result.

Still Missing

Linda Louise Skeek has never been found, and the acquittal of her husband on every charge connected to her disappearance means that, in the eyes of the law, no one has ever been held responsible for whatever happened to her on that freezing New Year's night in 2016. What remains is a case built on substantial circumstantial evidence that a jury nonetheless found insufficient to convict, a family that took up the search for her remains on their own initiative, and a silence that has now stretched on for nearly a decade, unbroken by any confession, any recovered remains, or any further legal resolution.

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