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The
whispers apparently stem from the murder of 26-year-old
Elizabeth Candice Nichole Laird, whose body was found in a
dumpster outside an apartment building on the city's east side
on Wednesday.
Police have asked for the public's help in finding a person of
interest in the murder of Laird, who according to an autopsy was
killed by "compressive asphyxia", which refers to crushing a
victim until they can no longer breathe.
"There is false information circulating on social media that
there is a serial killer at large in downtown Detroit, and that
five to six female victims have been found in dumpsters prior to
the May 15 homicide ... and that Detroit Police have failed to
communicate this information to the public," police officials
said on Facebook. "This is not true."
Assistant Police Chief David LeValley told reporters on the day
that Laird's body was found concealed in the dumpster that she
had a "negative encounter" with a man inside her apartment
building before she was slain.
On Friday, police said they were searching for 50-year-old James
Quill Cockerham for questioning in connection to the case and
asked that anyone with information concerning the crime or his
whereabouts contact detectives.
Detroit's police chief, James Craig, said in January that
homicides had declined in the city in 2018, marking the second
year in a row of declines in the city of some 675,000 people.
In 2018, there were a total of 261 criminal homicides, Craig
said, compared to 267 in 2017.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Alistair
Bell)
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