Accused killer arrested 21 years after woman found dead in river, Michigan officials say
It’s been over two decades since a 57-year-old woman’s body was dumped in a Michigan river, but the case has been cold since, Michigan officials said.
Twenty-one years later, a 47-year-old man is accused of stabbing her in the neck and strangling her to death, the Michigan Department of Attorney General said in a Dec. 10 news release.
Jeanette Wilton’s body was found in the Flint River near her home in Saginaw in February 2003, prosecutors said. An autopsy found she suffered from “blunt force trauma to the head and face, contusions, and postmortem abrasions,” the attorney general’s office said.
Advancements in DNA analysis helped investigators identify Jason Cabello as the accused killer, officials said.
Michigan State Police reopened the case in 2021 and submitted the evidence to a private lab for reexamination, prosecutors said. This created new leads.
Officials said Cabello was once in a relationship with Wilton’s relative, but the two were otherwise not connected.
Evidence was turned over to the attorney general in September, officials said, and prosecutors recently filed charges against Cabello on Dec. 9, court records said.
The man was charged with premeditated murder, homicide and criminal sexual conduct, according to court records.
His attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Dec. 11.
“For more than a decade, Jeanette’s loved ones have lived without answers, but with these charges, we are now one step closer to delivering long-awaited justice,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in the news release.
Cabello is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 17.
Saginaw is about a 75-mile drive northeast from Lansing.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Accused killer arrested 21 years after woman found dead in river, Michigan officials say."
