Terminally ill Alabama man calls police to confess to unsolved 1995 homicide

The days without arrest turned into months and years after someone killed Christopher Alvin Dailey in 1995. Although it was never closed, the case cooled without new evidence.

Then the Decatur Police Department phone rang.

Johnny Dwight Whited called investigators saying he wanted to confess to the murder, authorities said Thursday (US time).

Whited, 53, of Trinity, was charged with murder after providing details that matched the evidence and information collected after Dailey’s death, police said in a statement.

Court records do not include a defense attorney who could speak for Whited on the murder charge, but he was already awaiting trial on a methamphetamine charge and his trial was scheduled for May. Whited’s attorney in the drug case, Griff Belser, said he was not aware of the arrest in the murder until it was announced by police.

“You haven’t mentioned anything to me about this other matter,” Belser said.

Whited had a series of arrests for trafficking and drug offenses over the years, including one for possession of a cocaine crack pipe less than three weeks after two hunters found Dailey’s body shot in the head. on April 26, 1995, documents show. The victim’s vehicle was found partially submerged in the Tennessee River.

Without a suspect and no information that could lead to one, detectives followed leads without success. Then on Wednesday, a detective answered the phone.

In an affidavit, investigator Sean Mukaddam said he initially spoke with Whited, who agreed to show police the crime scene.

“The detectives met with Whited, who re-enacted the crime to the detectives and provided them with corroborated information about the murder,” the statement said.

Authorities said Whited and Dailey did not know each other and declined to discuss why, but Mukaddam said Whited is “terminally ill,” the New York Times reported.

While the police sometimes make public requests for information to help solve old cases, that had not happened with the Dailey murder. Authorities said it was unclear what prompted the call from Whited, who was jailed for the murder, on a $ 15,000 bond.

– with AP