HOLLAND, Mich.-
Twenty-seven years after a hotel desk clerk’s body was found in a wooded area, authorities have arrested five people, including the victim’s former roommate and boss, the attorney general said Wednesday.
Authorities would not say what led to the arrests in four states this week, but did disclose the a man charged in the case earlier this year had been talking with investigators. The first arrest in February came after a college documentary on the case brought out witnesses.
The six suspects are accused of kidnapping Janet Chandler as she worked the night shift at the Blue Mill Inn on Jan. 31, 1979, said Attorney General Mike Cox.
He said the 23-year-old Hope College student was taken to a house where she was beaten, raped and strangled. A day later, a snowplow driver discovered her body about 35 miles south of Holland.
Cox said Chandler’s hotel boss and roommate at the time of the killing, Laurie Ann Swank, was responsible for “enticing and encouraging the men to do what they did.”
As for a motive, Ottawa County Prosecutor Ron Frantz would say only that each suspect had “a common drive to brutalize Janet Chandler.”
Arrested along with Swank, 48, of Nescopeck, Pa., were Arthur Carlton “Carl” Paiva, 54, of Muskegon; James Cleophas “Bubba” Nelson, 59, of Rand, W.Va.; Freddie Bass Parker, 49, of Powellton, W.Va.; and Anthony Eugene Williams, 55, of Boscobel, Wis.
Parker’s sister, Annette Bennett, said her brother had left Michigan a day or two before Chandler was killed.
“My brother is innocent. My brother would not hurt a flea,” said Bennett, 41, of Belle, W.Va.
Telephone messages seeking comment were not immediately returned from attorneys for Parker and Nelson. Attempts to reach the other suspects’ attorneys or relatives for comment were unsuccessful.
All five suspects have been charged with premeditated murder and committing a murder during the commission of two other felonies–kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct. Each faces a mandatory life prison sentence with no possibility of parole if convicted.
Robert Lynch, 66, is set to head to trial in January for Chandler’s death. Lynch, who was arrested in February, worked as a security guard at the same company as the four men arrested this week, authorities said.
Interest in Chandler’s slaying was renewed after a Hope College class produced a documentary film about the case that aired on a Grand Rapids television station in January 2004.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
