A Connecticut man was arrested by police on Saturday and held on $ 2 million bail in connection with the murder of a teenage girl in cold case nearly 17 years ago.
Willie Robinson, 52, is accused of strangling Jessica Keyworth, 16, and leaving her in a stairwell in the basement of an apartment building after Memorial Day Weekend 2004, just a block from his famous hometown, according to the Republican American newspaper in Waterbury, Conn.
Keyworth took the train to Waterbury which arrived just before midnight on Memorial Day to meet a friend, but was found murdered in a stairwell the next morning.
“We are so happy to bring some closure and justice to the girl’s family,” said Fernando Spagnolo, Waterbury police chief, according to the paper. “A lot had to do with a lot of persistence on the part of the detectives involved in the case.”
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Spagnolo praised the detectives as “unparalleled”.
The chief did not specify what led investigators to Robinson, but said they were helped by DNA evidence and forensic science, FOX 61 reported in Hartford. It was not clear how she ended up in the stairwell.
Willie Robinson. (Waterbury Police)
Investigators ransacked the city after Keyworth’s murder and even traveled to Las Vegas in 2007 to interview someone about the case, but there were never any arrests.
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Robinson was arrested several months after Keyworth’s murder for an unrelated offense for interfering with a police officer, but it is not clear if he was interviewed about her death at the time. Officers did not say if there was a prior link between Robinson and Keyworth.
Robinson has an arrest report that includes sexual assault and risk of injury, the paper reported, but there was no record of any convictions.
He is facing one assassination attempt.
Police put Keyworth’s unsolved case in a specially designed deck of cards that were sold to inmates with cold cases on a variety of cards. Keyworth was the three hearts. The cards have resulted in hundreds of tips in business, but police have not said whether her card contributed to Robinson’s arrest.
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The investigation is underway and police said the $ 50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case is still available, the paper reported.