WASILLA — It’s been eight months, but there’s still a whole lot about the night Scott Johnson died that Alaska State Troopers don’t know.

Matt Christiansen, who said he thinks of Johnson like a brother, described his friend as generous with a strong love of the outdoors — hunting and motor sports, mostly.

“He enjoyed making anybody happy,” Christiansen said. “He did construction, he rebuilt bikes with his old man, rode dirt bikes. He just loved Alaska, hunting fishing, just all of that.”

MATT CHRISTIANSEN/Courtesy photo Scott Johnson was found dead in the southbound lane of the Parks Highway May 15, 2009. More than eight months later, officials believe his death to be a homicide.

A passerby found Johnson, 22, lying in the southbound lane of the Parks Highway near the intersection with Vine Road in the wee hours of May 15. The passerby called it in as a hit-and-run accident. And, for a few hours at least, troopers stuck with that description. But then they changed their minds, deciding instead to call it a homicide, a broader term but one that doesn’t necessarily rule out hit-and-run.

Now, said Sgt. Michelyn Grigg, troopers are sticking with homicide. But, she said, the evidence strongly suggests it wasn’t a hit-and-run. Someone killed Johnson, but likely not with a car.

“How we know that it was something other than a hit-and-run was what we didn’t find,” Grigg said. “There was only a head injury.”

Hit-and-runs, she said, usually leave the victim with a host of injuries — scrapes from hitting or dragging along the pavement; multiple scratches and bruises, broken bones, etc. Not so with Johnson. He just had one, very egregious head wound. The most likely scenario is that someone hit him over the head with something.

Grigg said troopers also know that Johnson had been hanging out with friends earlier that night in Wasilla, riding his dirt bike around and having fun. She wouldn’t call it a party, per-se, more of a gathering. Still, troopers know what time he left the gathering and that he drove off on his dirt bike.

They also know the bike broke down somewhere along the highway. Grigg said witnesses have reported seeing a man pushing a dirt bike next to the highway at the time troopers know Johnson was there.

“He’s headed home and he doesn’t make it,” Grigg said.

She said evidence — blood flow patterns, blood splatters — also seems to indicate that Johnson died on the highway or very close to it. Which is to say that most likely he wasn’t killed someplace else and dumped there.

But that’s kind of where the trail goes cold. Did someone follow Johnson from that party? Grigg said she knows there had been an argument there. Johnson was somehow involved in a love triangle.

Did someone spot Johnson as he walked his bike home? Grigg said she just doesn’t know. And why was his dirt bike found stashed in the woods north of where Johnson was found if he was heading north? If he’d stashed it, wouldn’t he have done so someplace along the way and thus south of the crime scene? Or did he stash it and decide to walk back to a gas station to call for a ride?

 She said she’s identified persons of interest in the case. But she just doesn’t have enough information to get search warrants or put people in jail.

“We have to have good reason for a judge to grant us a search warrant,” she said.

And, so far, they don’t have that.

“No one’s talking,” she said. “Whether they’re afraid to come forward, we don’t know. Or whether they just don’t want to get involved.”

One person who has made it a point to get involved is Matt Christiansen. He said the day Johnson died, the moment he heard, he drove out to the crime scene and talked to troopers. He found his friend’s dirt bike and pointed it out to troopers. And then, in a way, he started conducting his own investigation.

“I drove down the roads stopping at different houses,” Christiansen said.

As he found things out and talked to people he relayed what he learned to troopers. Christiansen also mentioned a love triangle. He said he’s settled on a group of people who are involved in his friend’s death. If he were a police officer he’d probably call them “persons of interest.” And he also said that it seems everyone in that circle has clammed up.

“Everyone just won’t talk,” he said.

He said it’s frustrating that, so far at least, nobody has been held accountable for killing his friend. He’s been talking to troopers at least once a month, and said they tell him they believe his friend died in something other than a hit and run

“That kind of makes it worse. Knowing that the cops are telling me, ‘Hey, I know he was murdered and we can’t get (his killers).’”

But, Christiansen said, though he’s frustrated, he’s not blaming the troopers.

“I know they’re trying,” Christiansen said.

And Grigg said she sympathizes with Christiansen frustration and the frustration of Johnson’s family. One of law enforcement’s nobler goals is a desire to bring closure to crime victims. And it’s frustrating when they can’t do that.

“We wish we had these answers,” she said. “I wish it was like TV where we can solve crimes in an hour.”

Information, she thinks, will break the case open. And if tipsters are worried about retribution they can call Mat-Su Crime Stoppers and remain anonymous, she said. The organization takes tips at 745-3333, online at matsu-crimestoppers.org and via text message to 274637 with the keyword MATSU followed by a tip.

The organization has already said it is offering up to $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

Christiansen said he and Johnson’s family are offering $5,000 as a reward of their own. He said he’s certain there are people out there who know what happened and he hopes maybe money will motivate one of them to do the right thing.

“As time goes by I think the trail just got cold and it’s frustrating that everybody knows,” Christiansen said. “Everybody who knows that situation knows who ... did it.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.