Wasilla man arraigned on million dollar bail for murder of Big Lake man last seen in 2015

WASILLA — Jay Gardner, 55 of Wasilla, was arraigned telephonically Wednesday at the Palmer Courthouse facing multiple felony charges including murder and tampering with evidence.

A Palmer grand jury indicted Gardner for first-degree murder, second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence on June 30 in relation to the death of Daniel Buckwalter, who was last seen in August of 2015.

“It was being investigated but there wasn’t much progress until recently,” Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said.

Kalytiak participated in the telephonic hearing, explaining that Gardner already had open state and federal cases prior to the indictment.

“It may take the defense agencies a while to figure it out,” Kalytiak said.

Gardner has numerous open and reopened cases with charges ranging from forgery to criminal impersonation. He was remanded by Alaskan State Troopers and Homeland Security for attempting to use fraudulent identification for a flight at the Ted Stevens Airport March 25.

Kalytiak said that Gardner attempted to leave the state using his sister’s name, Cher Jammes. Kalytiak said that Gardner was a high flight risk and requested a bail set at $500,000 cash appearance and $500,000 cash performance, which was granted.

Investigators were unable to locate Buckwalter’s remains until April 20. They discovered the “heavily decomposed remains of an adult human,” under Gardner’s house while serving a second search warrant. The state medical examiner verified Buckwalter’s identity.

Gardner’s next court appearance is a pretrial conference Aug. 6 with Judge Kristen Stohler assigned to the case.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com