PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — A Florida prison inmate has been charged with murder in the strangling of a woman in southwestern Michigan more than three decades ago.
Prosecutors charged 49-year-old Robert James Waite last week in the killing of 59-year-old Wilda Wilkinson of Bangor during a home invasion in July 1986.
Michigan State Police tell WOOD-TV that they matched partial DNA found on Wilkinson’s clothes to Waite. Detectives say Waite confessed to killing Wilkinson when they interviewed him in April. Authorities say Waite knew specific details about the slaying.
Waite is imprisoned in Florida on unrelated kidnapping and sexual battery charges. He will be extradited to Michigan.
Prosecutors in March charged another man who police said confessed to killing Wilkinson, but they dismissed the charge without prejudice when investigators confirmed Waite’s DNA match.
