Christopher WhitakerCleveland police
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The South Euclid man arrested Thursday in connection with the slaying of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze has been charged.
Christopher Whitaker, 44, is charged with aggravated murder. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Saturday.
Officials have not said how Whitaker killed Alianna. The Cuyahoga County Medical ruled that she died from “multiple injuries.”
Whitaker, a convicted sex offender, is accused of killing Alianna, who had mental disabilities, as she transferred busses on her way to E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills Campus on Jan. 26.
She boarded a bus about 6:45 a.m. that day and surveillance video showed she got off the bus on East 93rd and Kinsman. She walked west towards a McDonald’s but never went into the restaurant.
She wasn’t seen again until about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when Cleveland police officers scoured the neighborhood trying to find her. They found her dead in an abandoned building in the 9400 block of Fuller Avenue.
The medical examiner, who believed the body belonged to Alianna, was unable to positively identify for three days until they matched up her dental records, the medical examiner said.
In a Facebook post, Alianna’s school remembered her as a “gentle, kind and beautiful person– inside and out. She has a smile that can light up a room and a giggle that is contagious.”
Whitaker served four years in prison for a 2005 sexual battery and felonious assault conviction.
He also has prior convictions dating to 1996 for aggravated theft, burglary and criminal trespassing.
To comment on this post, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
