Oct 7, 2008 4:37 pm US/Eastern
Worcester Police Say Deadly Stabbing Was Random
WORCESTER (WBZ) ―
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Benjamin Mankinen in court on Monday.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Police in Worcester say a man there randomly stabbed a woman to death on Monday. Court documents say he has a history of mental illness. A close friend of the victim told WBZ's Ron Sanders she worked with troubled kids.
"How could this happen?" wondered Shirley Pearson who said she had known Shelleigh Wilcox nearly 40 years, including the time Shelligh lived on a small Indian reservation in Grafton that dates back to 1728. And so Shirley cannot believe her close friend has been stabbed to death. "It was a brutal way for her to die. She was a good person."
Police say Benjamin Makinen called 911Monday morning and told dispatchers he had repeatedly stabbed and killed a woman and that he did not know her.
"At first, we thought there might have been a connection between the two but shortly into the investigation, it became quite apparent that these two had absolutely no connection to one another at all; and we find that very unusual," explained Worcester Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst.
Detectives say it happened on the second floor of a Lancaster Street apartment house when Makinen randomly knocked on the door of a unit Wilcox was visiting and she opened it.
It is across the city from the Stoneland Road apartment where police say Makinen had recently been living with his mother.
Jodie Johnson, a neighbor, said, "It is scary to know that somebody like that was living across the street from you."
Michael Coleman, the maintenance man at an apartment building a few blocks from downtown Worcester, says Shelleigh Wilcox had been rooming in his apartment. "Everybody is shocked at the way this happened," said Coleman.
As you can find Shelleigh Wilcox's blood stains on the steps where she lost her life, Shirley Pearson, who calls herself Shelliegh's best friend, found sympathy for the man charged with taking that life. "I got to forgive him. I can't hold no ill feelings for the man," she said.
Police say Makinen had no criminal record until now. Court documents say because Makinen has a history of mental illness, he's being held without bail and is being evaluated at Bridgewater State Hospital for competency to stand trial.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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