A man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Kenai on Thursday in the case of a Homer woman who went missing in 2019.
Thirty-six-year-old Kirby Calderwood has accepted a plea deal through which he would serve 87 active years in prison. Calderwood would not pleading guilty to the other eight counts he faced in the case, which included first-degree murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, manslaughter and sexual assault.
Calderwood is scheduled to be sentenced later this summer.
State law says a person commits the crime of murder in the second degree when they cause the death of another person after intending to cause them serious physical injury or knowing conduct is substantially certain to cause that person serious physical injury.
Anesha “Duffy” Murnane was reported missing in Homer after she failed to show up for an appointment. Police arrested Calderwood in Utah in 2022 after his wife called in a tip to law enforcement, multiple years after Murnane went missing. Charging documents say Murnane and Calderwood knew each other through a supportive living facility where Murnane lived and Calderwood had worked.
Murnane’s disappearance prompted a community-wide search effort in Homer, as well as a public memorial in the form of a bench at the Homer Public Library.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
