The messages said John McClelland was gravely ill, but prosecutors said his roommate had already killed him.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The texts to Michigan said John McClelland was sick in a Fairbanks hospital and needed money, but an Alaska jury later heard that the 61-year-old North Pole man was already dead and his roommate was posing as him.
Those messages became the first public crack in a five-year case that ended with Aaron Hague convicted of manslaughter, second-degree theft and tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors said Hague killed McClelland in 2020, then tried to create the false appearance that McClelland was alive, hospitalized and asking family for help. Hague was acquitted of first-degree murder in Alaska, but he now faces an August sentencing and a separate Oregon prosecution accusing him of killing another man, Anthony Alcorn, as part of an identity theft scheme.
Dan McClelland, John McClelland’s brother, lived far from Alaska when the messages began arriving. They were alarming because they described a medical emergency, yet they were also odd because they did not sound like normal contact from a close relative. Prosecutors said the texts claimed McClelland was sick in a hospital and asked Dan to wire more than $8,000. Dan later said the money was described as needed for transmission repairs, rent and medical costs. One message directed him to call Hague, who claimed to be with McClelland while he was dying from a cardiopulmonary problem and needed emergency surgery.
Dan McClelland began checking the story himself. He contacted a care center and two hospitals in Fairbanks, but none had a record of his brother as a patient. He also knew his brother had recently sent him three checks for $4,000 each and asked him to hold the money, with instructions to divide it between two nephews if anything happened to him. When one of the later messages asked for at least half of that money back, the situation looked less like a medical crisis and more like a warning sign. Dan McClelland asked Alaska State Troopers to conduct a welfare check on Aug. 20, 2020.
The welfare check quickly turned into a missing person investigation because other parts of McClelland’s life had also gone silent. Prosecutors said he stopped going to work and stopped reporting to probation and parole. At the time, he was living with Hague at a residence in North Pole, a community southeast of Fairbanks. Hague told troopers that he had also received texts from McClelland saying McClelland was in a hospital, but he said he could not show the messages because he had lost the phone. He also said he last saw McClelland when he dropped him at an urgent care facility in Fairbanks. Investigators later determined that drop-off never happened.
For jurors, the text messages were not just a strange detail. They were part of the state’s proof that Hague knew McClelland was dead and tried to delay discovery. Prosecutors said the messages hid the killing, sought money from McClelland’s family and helped explain why McClelland was no longer seen. The state also showed that Hague benefited financially after the disappearance. Witnesses described spending of nearly $3,000 on McClelland’s debit card, possession of McClelland’s Jeep, GMC truck, boat and trailer, and an unemployment insurance claim filed in McClelland’s name. The body was never found, so the state used conduct after the disappearance to show what happened before it.
The trial included 42 state witnesses and ended with Hague taking the stand. He admitted McClelland was dead and admitted causing his death, but said the shooting happened in self-defense. The jury did not convict him of first-degree murder, the most serious Alaska charge, but also did not accept self-defense as a full answer. Jurors found him guilty of manslaughter, theft and evidence tampering. “We believe that he was 100% murdered,” Alaska State Troopers Sgt. Jeremy Rupe had testified earlier during a death presumption hearing, a statement that reflected the direction investigators took before prosecutors brought the no-body case to trial.
Hague’s actions after the Alaska interview became another major part of the case. Prosecutors said he left Fairbanks on Aug. 26, 2020, one day after troopers questioned him about McClelland. He hitchhiked to Anchorage and went to a cousin’s apartment, where he said he and McClelland “got into it” and that “murder happened,” according to the state. Prosecutors said he then tried to steal the cousin’s passport. After that, Hague stayed at a temporary homeless shelter at Sullivan Arena. There, he used his younger brother’s identity and met Alcorn, an Ohio man who looked similar to him.
Alcorn’s name later appeared in documents found with Hague in Oregon. Prosecutors said Hague took Alcorn’s Ohio identification card and used it in October 2020 to fly to Seattle under Alcorn’s name, then traveled to Portland. Once in Oregon, Hague lived and worked as Anthony Alcorn. He also told a woman he met on the MAX light rail line that he was Russian, that his American name was Anthony Alcorn and that his Russian name was Anton Vovk. Oregon prosecutors now accuse him of luring the real Alcorn from Anchorage to Gresham in March 2021 with a promise of a good-paying job and killing him in a wooded area. Hague has not been convicted in that case.
The Oregon allegations echo parts of the Alaska case, according to prosecutors. In Alaska, Hague was accused of using McClelland’s phone to send messages to family after McClelland disappeared. In Oregon, authorities allege Hague used Alcorn’s phone to send messages to Alcorn’s mother after Alcorn was killed. Hague was arrested near the Gresham Central Transit Center on March 30, 2021. Detectives said he identified himself as Anthony Alcorn. A search found Alcorn’s Social Security card, Alcorn’s Alaska identification card and a debit card in Alcorn’s name, along with Hague’s own Social Security card and Alaska driver’s license.
The Fairbanks verdict leaves two court systems moving in sequence. In Alaska, Hague’s convictions carry possible prison terms that include up to 20 years for manslaughter and up to five years each for theft and tampering. In Oregon, the first-degree murder and identity theft charges are pending, and prosecutors still must prove them in court. The Alaska Department of Law said Hague was on felony probation when the Alaska offenses occurred and is being held without bail. McClelland’s remains have not been recovered, leaving his family with a conviction but no body.
Aaron Hague is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 11, 2026, in Alaska. After that hearing, officials expect him to be transported to Oregon, where the case involving Alcorn’s death is expected to proceed later this year.
Author note: Last updated May 5, 2026.