In a chilling case that spans two states, an Alaska man stands accused of orchestrating a deadly scheme involving his roommate. Prosecutors allege that Aaron Hague, 37, fabricated a story about his roommate being on his “deathbed,” sending distressing texts to the man’s family, all while having already killed him. Hague then fled to Oregon, where he allegedly committed another murder to assume a new identity.

Last week, Hague was convicted of manslaughter and other charges in connection with the mysterious disappearance and presumed death of John McClelland in 2020. This case was prosecuted as a “no body” homicide in Fairbanks, according to a press release from the local prosecutors.

In Oregon, Hague faces charges of first-degree murder. Authorities claim he enticed Anthony Alcorn to travel from Anchorage to Gresham with promises of lucrative employment, only to kill him in the woods as part of a scheme to steal Alcorn’s identity, thereby evading justice for McClelland’s murder.

Before McClelland vanished, his brother in Michigan started receiving unsettling text messages that raised alarm bells. These messages suggested McClelland had fallen gravely ill and was hospitalized, as reported by The Oregonian in 2022.

The Fairbanks District Attorney’s Office detailed that McClelland’s brother, Dan, was suspicious of these texts supposedly from McClelland, which also included requests for more than $8,000 to be wired. Around this time, McClelland stopped reporting to work and ceased his probation and parole check-ins, raising further suspicion.

“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.