Inset: Aaron Hague (Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office). Background: John McClelland (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System).
An Alaska man pretended that his roommate was dying and texting his family “on his deathbed,” when in reality he killed the man and then fled to Oregon — where he allegedly murdered another person and stole their identity, prosecutors say.
Aaron Hague, 37, was found guilty last week of manslaughter and other charges related to John McClelland’s 2020 disappearance and presumed death in what Fairbanks prosecutors say was a “no body” homicide prosecution, according to a press release.
Hague is currently charged in Oregon with first-degree murder for allegedly luring a man, Anthony Alcorn, from Anchorage to Gresham “with the promise of a good paying job” and then beating him to death in the woods “to perfect his theft of Alcorn’s identity to avoid prosecution for McClelland’s death,” prosecutors say.
McClelland’s brother told The Oregonian newspaper in 2022 that he began receiving text messages before McClelland’s disappearance that were both ominous and alarming. They claimed McClelland had been hospitalized after becoming very ill.
“McClelland’s brother Dan, who resided in Michigan … had received suspicious text messages purportedly sent from McClelland that indicated that McClelland was sick in the hospital,” the Fairbanks District Attorney’s Office says in its press release announcing Hague’s conviction.
“The messages also requested that Dan wire McClelland over eight thousand dollars,” the release explains. “At around the same time, McClelland stopped showing up for work and also stopped reporting to the probation and parole office.”
According to Dan McClelland, the money was supposed to be for “transmission, rent and medical costs.” He told the Oregonian that one message asked that Dan call Hague directly, with him claiming to be by McClelland’s side while he was dying from a “cardiopulmonary issue” and needed emergency surgery.
Dan McClelland said he wondered why his brother “would sit there texting on his deathbed” but not call his sibling and family himself.
“We believe that he was 100% murdered,” Sgt. Jeremy Rupe, an investigator for the Alaska State Troopers, reportedly testified at a death presumption hearing in 2021.
A month before the texts started coming in, Dan McClelland said his brother sent him three separate checks for $4,000 each. He asked Dan to hold the money for him and if anything were to happen to him, Dan was told to divide the cash between his two nephews, according to the Oregonian.
One of the ominous texts sent by Hague asked Dan McClelland to send back “at least half those checks,” per the brother.
Dan McClelland said he checked with a care center and two different hospitals in Fairbanks, with none of them ever receiving John McClelland as a patient. He called Alaska state police and asked for a welfare check, which sparked the investigation that led to Hague being suspected of killing John and using his phone to text Dan.
“At the time McClelland went missing, he was living with Hague at a residence in North Pole,” the prosecutors’ press release says. “Hague quickly became a person of interest in McClelland’s disappearance. Hague told the troopers that, like Dan, he had received text messages from McClelland that indicated that McClelland was sick in the hospital. When asked to show the troopers the messages, however, Hague said that he lost the phone that they were sent to.”
Hague claimed he last saw McClelland when he dropped him off at an urgent care facility in Fairbanks — one of the centers Dan McClelland said he called. “The troopers’ investigation determined that never happened,” the DA’s office says about the dropoff.
On Aug. 26, 2020, Hague fled Fairbanks and hitchhiked to Anchorage a day after being interviewed about McClelland’s disappearance by Alaska State Troopers. He went to his cousin’s apartment and told them that he and McClelland “got into it” and a “murder happened,” according to prosecutors.
Hague began staying at a temporary homeless shelter in Anchorage, where he befriended Alcorn, per the DA’s office. “Alcorn, who was originally from Ohio, looked very similar in appearance to Hague,” the office’s press release says.
In October 2020, Hague took Alcorn’s Ohio identification card and used it to fly under Alcorn’s name to Seattle, Washington. Hague then traveled to Oregon and “lured” Alcorn to the state while posing as him, prosecutors say.
In the Alcorn case, Hague allegedly used Alcorn’s cellphone to text the man’s mother and pose as him after the slaying.
“Essentially, it’s the same MO as it was in Alaska, as in Oregon,” a state investigator testified, per the Oregonian.
Hague was eventually caught and arrested for McClelland’s death. At his trial, prosecutors said he purchased “almost $3,000 worth of property” with McClelland’s debit card.
“With McClelland gone, Hague also found himself in sole possession of McClelland’s Jeep, GMC truck, boat, and trailer,” the DA’s press release says. “During that same period, Hague also filed an unemployment insurance claim in McClelland’s name.”
Hague confessed during his trial that McClelland was dead and that he caused his death, but claimed he did not murder him. Hague testified that he shot McClelland in self-defense, a claim that the jury later rejected, according to prosecutors.
Jurors, however, acquitted Hague of first-degree murder and instead found him guilty of manslaughter, theft, and tampering with evidence. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and up to five years on each of the other two charges.
The trial for Hague’s Oregon case is expected to occur later this year. He is scheduled to be sentenced in Alaska on Aug. 11 and then transported to Oregon to stand trial.
