Aaron Hague now faces sentencing in Alaska before a separate Oregon murder case.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A Fairbanks jury convicted Aaron Hague of manslaughter, theft and evidence tampering in the 2020 death of his roommate, John McClelland, after prosecutors said Hague killed him, used his money and pretended he was alive through text messages.

The verdict closes one major stage of a case that began as a welfare check and grew into a cross-state investigation reaching from North Pole to Anchorage, Seattle and Gresham, Oregon. Hague, 37, was acquitted of first-degree murder but faces up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction and up to five years each on the theft and tampering convictions. He remains accused in Oregon of first-degree murder and identity theft in the later death of Anthony Alcorn, charges he has not been convicted of.

Alaska State Troopers first entered the case on Aug. 20, 2020, after Dan McClelland, who lived in Michigan, asked authorities to check on his 61-year-old brother. John McClelland had stopped reporting to work and to probation and parole. At the same time, Dan McClelland was receiving troubling text messages that appeared to come from his brother and said he was sick in a hospital. The messages also asked for more than $8,000. Dan McClelland later said one detail made no sense: his brother was supposedly near death, but was texting instead of calling. “We believe that he was 100% murdered,” Alaska State Troopers Sgt. Jeremy Rupe later testified at a death presumption hearing.

Prosecutors said the messages formed part of Hague’s attempt to explain McClelland’s sudden absence and obtain money from his family. Dan McClelland checked with a care center and two hospitals in Fairbanks and found no record that his brother had been admitted. The account also conflicted with Hague’s own statement to troopers. Hague said he had dropped McClelland off at an urgent care facility in Fairbanks, but investigators determined that did not happen. Hague also told troopers he had received similar messages from McClelland about being sick, but said he lost the phone that contained them. Those answers helped move Hague from roommate to person of interest.

The Alaska case was tried without McClelland’s body, which has never been found. Prosecutors relied on witness testimony, financial records, statements, phone-related evidence and Hague’s own trial testimony. The state called 42 witnesses. They told jurors that Hague gained access to McClelland’s property after the disappearance and spent nearly $3,000 using McClelland’s debit card. Prosecutors said Hague also wound up with McClelland’s Jeep, GMC truck, boat and trailer, and filed an unemployment insurance claim in McClelland’s name. The evidence showed both a violent death and a cover-up, the state argued, even without remains.

Hague testified in his own defense and acknowledged that McClelland was dead and that he caused the death. He told jurors he shot McClelland in self-defense, not murder. The jury rejected that account as a complete defense but also declined to convict him of first-degree murder. The split verdict left Hague guilty of manslaughter, second-degree theft and tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors Andrew Baldock and Katherine Gonsalves handled the Fairbanks trial, and the Department of Law credited Alaska State Troopers, Gresham police and Fairbanks District Attorney’s Office staff for work that tied together events across two states.

The timeline presented by prosecutors moved quickly after Hague spoke with investigators. On Aug. 26, 2020, the day after troopers interviewed him about McClelland’s disappearance, Hague fled Fairbanks and hitchhiked to Anchorage. Prosecutors said he went to a cousin’s apartment and said he and McClelland “got into it” and that “murder happened.” He also tried to steal his cousin’s passport, according to the state. Hague then stayed at a temporary homeless shelter in Anchorage, located at Sullivan Arena, where prosecutors said he began using his younger brother’s identity and met Alcorn, a man from Ohio who resembled him.

That Anchorage meeting became the bridge to the pending Oregon case. Prosecutors said Hague took Alcorn’s Ohio identification card in October 2020 and flew under Alcorn’s name to Seattle, then traveled by train to Portland. In Oregon, the state said, Hague lived and worked as Anthony Alcorn. He also met a woman on a MAX light rail train in January 2021 and began a relationship with her while using false names. Prosecutors said he claimed to be Russian, gave his American name as Anthony Alcorn and used the Russian name Anton Vovk. The Oregon allegations remain unproven in court.

Hague was arrested March 30, 2021, near the Gresham Central Transit Center. Police said he identified himself as Anthony Alcorn when detectives found him. A search turned up Alcorn’s Social Security card, Alaska identification card and a debit card in Alcorn’s name, along with Hague’s own Social Security card and Alaska driver’s license. In the Oregon case, prosecutors allege Hague lured Alcorn from Anchorage to Gresham with the promise of a good-paying job and killed him in a wooded area to secure the stolen identity and avoid prosecution in Alaska. Hague is presumed innocent on those Oregon charges unless proven guilty.

The verdict in Fairbanks gives prosecutors a conviction in a case that lacked the most visible piece of evidence in many homicide trials: the victim’s body. McClelland’s disappearance, the false hospital story, the missing phone Hague claimed contained similar texts, the spending from McClelland’s account and Hague’s flight all became parts of the state’s proof. Jurors did not accept Hague’s self-defense explanation, but their acquittal on first-degree murder showed they did not accept every part of the state’s theory. The result leaves a confirmed felony conviction in Alaska and a separate, more serious trial still ahead in Oregon.

Hague is being held by the Alaska Department of Corrections without bail pending sentencing, now scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026. After sentencing, he is expected to be transported to Oregon to face the pending murder and identity theft case tied to Alcorn’s death.

Author note: Last updated May 5, 2026.