A Chicago man was ordered held without bond Thursday in the death of a 21-year-old woman whose body was dumped in an alley trash can three years ago.
In addition to the murder of Diamond Turner, Cook County prosecutors on Thursday named Arthur Hilliard as a suspect in the death of two other people. Turner’s body was found by a garbage collector in March 2017. Authorities say the delay in arresting Hilliard, who was taken into custody Wednesday, was due to the length of time it took to complete DNA testing.
"You know, we don’t have full ability, as with some police departments, to analyze our own DNA,” said interim Chicago police Superintendent Charlie Beck. "So we have to rely on the state. And as soon as the DNA came back, the warrant was served.”
Authorities say Hilliard, 52, who is charged with first-degree murder, continued to commit crimes despite knowing he was a suspect in the Turner case. Prosecutors say Turner pleaded guilty to concealing the homicide of Andre Williams, 43, who was stabbed to death and left in a shopping cart in September 2018. Surveillance video show Hilliard wheeling the shopping cart with Williams’ body into the alley. Hilliard was sentenced to less than year in jail for the crime. Police say he remains a murder suspect in that case.
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"If they would have locked him up when ... Diamond got killed, he wouldn’t have had a chance to hurt my brother,” Shawndra Williams told the Chicago Tribune.
Prosecutors said Hilliard is a suspect in a third stabbing homicide, but they did not provide details Thursday.
Prosecutors said Turner was last seen by several witnesses at an apartment building where Hilliard lived. A witness told investigators Turner, who was in a relationship with Hilliard, was in his bed that night, and another witness reported later cleaning up a blood trail from Hilliard’s room to the back door of his apartment. The witness said Hilliard claimed the blood was from a cut on his leg, but DNA recovered from the apartment’s floor was matched to Turner.
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Assistant Public Defender Kate Moriarty said during Thursday’s hearing that Hilliard is a high school graduate with six children.
