Detroit, MI - An Oakland County judge threw out Thursday portions of a man’s statement implicating himself in the death of a 19-year-old woman whose nude body was found floating in the Huron River at Proud Lake State Recreation Area in April.

Judge Nanci Grant said police should have stopped interrogating John J. Anderson, a 24-year-old Wixom man who is accused of murdering Natalie Miller and dumping her body in the river, after he tried to stop the interrogation after several hours. The ruling means that many details — including information police say they have on why he would have killed Miller — will be lost to a jury.

Authorities have said Anderson, who described on the taped statement his life as a so-called druid who worships the natural world, told them how he placed Miller’s body in the river to unite her spirit with water. Prosecutors say he killed her because she spurned him as a love interest.

A trial is set for June 21.

The ruling may make it harder to prosecute the case, since there were no eyewitnesses to place Anderson in the park, but parts of the statement police say Anderson gave in the days after Miller’s body was discovered can be used — including any part taken before he asked for the interrogation to cease.

That includes investigators asking Anderson if the killing was an accident and he said, “It just happened.”

Source

• Brasier, L.L. Judge rules for suspect who says he’s a druid. (2007, March 16). Detroit Free Press, MI. Retrieved March 16, 2007.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Legal Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.