1. HE CARRIED OUT THE ATTACKS IN 2016. Using an online sex offender registry, Vukovich targeted three men based on the description on their listings, which also included their home addresses. He then carried around a notebook with the names of the men he planned to confront, with Charles Albee, Andres Barbosa, and Wesley Demarest becoming the target of his assaults.
2. HE TARGETED MEN WHO WERE GUILTY OF ABUSING CHILDREN. The men Vukovich attacked were chosen for one specific reason: they had committed sexual crimes against children, which is perhaps the most abhorrent kind of crime one could commit. Vukovich broke into each of the men’s homes at night and hit them in the head with hammers. While none were killed, Demarest, who’s in his late 60s, was critically injured with a fractured skull and claims he still suffers health issues today because of the attacks. “He said, ‘I’m an avenging angel, I’m going to mete out justice for the people you hurt,’” Demarest told KVTA.
3. VUKOVICH HIMSELF WAS ABUSED AS A CHILD. In a five-page letter written to the Anchorage Daily News in November 2018, Vukovich opened up about what led him to brutally attack the men in question. “I thought back to my experiences as a child and felt the overwhelming desire to act,” he recalled. “I took matters into my own hands and assaulted three pedophiles.”
4. MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE HE SHOULDN’T BE IN PRISON. While Vukovich himself admits guilt when it comes to the crimes he was charged with, there are those who believe what he did was a good thing and support his immediate release. There was even a petition going around calling for his acquittal, though it only received 258 signatures before being closed.
5. VUKOVICH NOW REALIZES THE ERROR OF HIS WAYS. He hopes the others can see his case and learn from it. “There is no place for vigilante justice in an ordered society,” Vukovich said. Now, he will spend the next 25 years behind bars, and for what?