‘Wife beater Alaska mayor’s domestic abuser sons’ girlfriends are BOTH found dead at his home two years apart’ – with local cops accused of slow-walking probes into their deaths

The two abusive sons of a wife-beater Alaska mayor each dated a woman who was found dead in the lawmaker’s home two years apart — but no one has ever been charged.

Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton were found dead with signs of strangulation and assault in the Alaskan town of Kotzebue in 2018 and 2020.

Both women were in a relationship with the sons of ex-mayor Clement Richard at the time, which the police were accused of ProPublica doing nothing after the death of the two women.

Richard was previously convicted of beating his wife Annette, while his two sons Anthony and Amos also have a history of domestic violence. Anthony had been convicted of beating Kirk before her death in May 2018, which police said was a suicide.

Amos admitted to kicking Norton in the stomach while she was six months pregnant before she was killed in March 2020.

Despite these convictions – and a long track record of abuse allegations by several other women – none of the sons have been charged in their deaths.

Holes in the police investigation and judicial process have raised serious questions about a possible cover-up, after ProPublica and the Anchorage daily news tell the story together.

EX-MAYOR IS A WOMAN BUTTON AND WOMAN WORKED FOR COPS

Clement Richards Sr. was elected to the city council in 1999 and held positions as vice mayor and then mayor until 2018.

Ten years before he was first elected, he beat his pregnant wife, Annette, and pleaded no contest to a domestic violence offense. He received a six-month prison sentence, according to ProPublica.

During this campaign, no mention was made of his history of domestic violence.

Annette worked at a local Alaska State Troopers office, where her duties included assisting prosecutors, including one who later served as a judge in domestic violence cases against her sons.

There is no evidence that she directly intervened in either case.

Unexplained gaps in the subsequent police investigation and legal proceedings involving the couple’s sons have raised questions about whether Richards and his wife’s positions helped their children avoid charges in the deaths of their girlfriends.

FIRST DEATH, MAY 2018: ‘SUICIDE’

Jennifer Kirk, 25, was found dead at the foot of a bed with a gun at her feet, strangulation marks around her neck and a bullet hole under her chin.

She was dating the former mayor’s son, Anthony Richards, at the time and had previously filed a series of police reports alleging he had hit her. Despite this, her death was declared a suicide.

On May 23, 2018, police were called to the couple’s home on the ex-mayor’s property. They found Anthony in the bedroom, holding Kirk’s body covered in blood.

Anthony told police he was watching TV when he heard a shot and found Kirk dying on the floor – he did not tell police they had argued or that he had strangled her.

A police report seen by ProPublica noted that “the length of the rifle, from the tip of the barrel to the tip of the trigger, was 27 1/8 inches long.” But Kirk, who was only 6 feet tall, had an arm 26 3/18 inches long, raising questions about whether she could have even held such a long gun.

Two days later, when the state medical examiner discovered the “signs of strangulation,” Richards reportedly admitted that he had violently fought with Kirk on the day of her death and strangled her in self-defense.

He told police he “held her by the neck and didn’t know how hard he was squeezing.”

It wasn’t the first time Richards hurt Kirk. In 2015, Kirk had checked into a local hospital and told police he had hit her five times.

In 2017, Kirk told police he strangled her until her vision began to shrink and she nearly passed out. The case could have been a felony, but the prosecutor let him off with a misdemeanor charge.

Despite its history, then-Police Chief Thomas Milliette closed the case of Kirk’s death after one day of investigation and ruled it a suicide.

After reviewing the data, former Kotzebue Police Chief Ed Ward said Kirk’s death seemed to capture all 10 warning signs of domestic violence that police should look for — Ward was not working at the police department at the time of her death.

Kirk’s family told ProPublica that she had given no indications that she was suicidal. Her mother, Dora Stalker, said she spoke to her on the day of her death and she sounded optimistic and making plans for the future.

She added: ‘They should have investigated much better and more thoroughly before saying it was suicide.’

SECOND DEATH, MARCH 2020: HOMIND

Two years after Kirk’s death, 30-year-old Susanna “Sue Sue” Norton was found dead in an adjacent home, also on the former mayor’s property.

At the time, she was dating the former mayor’s son, Amos Richards.

Police were called to the home on March 9, where they found Norton’s body with his head covered.

She had been beaten and strangled and an autopsy determined the cause of death was homicide by “asphyxia due to airway obstruction and neck compression.”

Despite this, no one has been charged in her death.

Police reportedly did not tell her family that she had been strangled, never interviewed key witnesses and a judge denied a search warrant, meaning important evidence was not collected at the scene.

Shockingly, no appeal was made to the public for information. That was in stark contrast to a year earlier, when police had called on the public to report anything that could help them catch the killer of the local fire brigade’s dog.

Richards had attacked Norton in the past.

In 2018, police found Norton, who was six months pregnant at the time, crying with a swollen black eye.

She allegedly told them that she had tried to stop her Richards from drinking by pouring his beer, and that he had “repeatedly kicked her in the head, face, stomach and back.”

Norton then flew to Anchorage, where doctors reportedly noted that she had suffered “premature rupture of waters” and that her baby was born three months premature and weighed only 3.1 pounds.

In 2020, Norton’s mother, Susanna, said, “My family will not have peace until they know they have found someone who did this to her.”

The bizarre behavior of the police

Both Anthony, Amos and Richards’ third son, Clement Jr., have long histories of domestic violence and abuse, but all have avoided harsh sentences.

The Daily News and ProPublica reportedly reviewed 31 criminal cases involving the three sons and six different women.

Twelve of the cases involved domestic violence, seven of which were filed while Clement Sr. held political office.

Despite the multiple charges and multiple victims, the sons were repeatedly released with light sentences and lower bail.

When Anthony Richards was once accused of sexual assault, Superior Court Judge Paul Roetman set an unusually low bail, citing knowing his mother as the reason.

During the bail hearing, he said, “I know Ms. Richards from when she worked for the troopers. She has a lot of experience with these types of matters and knows how they work.’

Although a Kotzebue grand jury indicted him on charges of assault and attempted assault, Anthony was ultimately dismissed with a single misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

Roetman reportedly told him in court: “To say you dodged a bullet is probably an understatement in this case.”

Roetman declined to comment when contacted by ProPublica.

DailyMail.com contacted the Richards family and Kotzebue police for comment.