Arrest Made in 2004 Cold Case Killing of 16-year-old

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February 03, 2021
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Police in Waterbury, Connecticut said Saturday they had arrested and charged a local man in the killing of a teenager nearly 17 years ago.

Jessica Keyworth’s body was found in the stairwell of an apartment building on June 1, 2004. An autopsy revealed that the 16-year-old had been strangled.

On Thursday, police arrested 52-year-old Willie Robinson of Waterbury. He faces one count of murder and was being held on $2 million bail. It wasn’t immediately known if he had retained an attorney who could comment on the charge. A news conference Monday to discuss the arrest was postponed due to the weather and rescheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Waterbury police headquarters on East Main Street.

A news release from the Waterbury Police Department didn’t specify what evidence led them to suspect Robinson, but Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo told the Waterbury Republican-American that investigators were aided by DNA technology and forensic science.

Keyworth was a student at a Job Corps center in Massachusetts and was visiting friends and family in Connecticut when she was killed, the newspaper reported. She arrived by train in Waterbury late on the night of May 30 to meet up with a classmate. It is unknown how she ended up at the four-story building where she was found.

“We’re so happy that we can bring some closure and justice for the girl’s family,” Spagnolo told the newspaper. “A lot of it had to do with a lot of perseverance by the detectives involved in the case.”

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