Police in Ohio have arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the death of a Dayton mother and the kidnapping of her 4-year-old son, who was later abandoned at a highway rest stop.
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer identified the suspect as Charlie W. Myers of Harrison Township, Ohio. Plummer said the man confessed to involvement with the case and is being held in connection with an aggravated murder. Formal charges have not been filed.
Jenny Nelson, 29, was shot by an intruder last Friday in her Dayton home as she was getting her son, Will, ready for bed. The boy, who will turn 5 on Saturday, was kidnapped and later abandoned at a rest stop on I-70 outside of Columbus.
Plummer said the young boy’s ability to tell police where he lived and to describe his mother’s attacker helped lead to the rapid arrest of Myers.
“He did a good job,” the sheriff said of Will Nelson. “He gave us a pretty good description of him: white male, height. He knew it was a stranger. He’s a very sharp young man.”
Plummer said that Myers has a criminal record that includes an arrest as a juvenile for aggravated arson. “He has a couple of misdemeanor property crimes,” Plummer said, adding that Myers had also been arrested on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
“This is a bizarre case. This is probably the worst I’ve seen,” Plummer told reporters in describing the crime.
Earlier on Monday, Jenny Nelson’s husband, Eddie, and her sister, Amber Stillings, had spoken exclusively with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira about the shooting and kidnapping.
Nelson said his son is traumatized by what he saw and is not talking much about it.