(WHDH) — A terminally ill man called police to confess to a murder that had gone unsolved for 25 years, officials announced this week.
Johnny Dwight Whited, 53, of Alabama, called the Decatur Police Department on Wednesday and told a detective that he was responsible for fatally shooting Christopher Alvin Dailey on April 26, 1995, according to police.
“Despite the extensive investigation, a suspect was never developed in the case, police said in a news release. “In the years that followed, the case was revisited several times in search for leads.”
Detectives met with Whited, who provided information that matched the evidence and information in the cold case, police said.
“‘I want to confess to a murder that I did years ago,'” Detective Sean Mukaddam said Whited told him, according to a New York Times report. “He didn’t know the date or the year. We were scrambling to try to figure out what he was talking about.”
Whited also took detectives to where Dailey’s body was found and re-enacted the killing, the Times reported.
Mukaddam told the news outlet that Whited is “terminally ill” and “wanted to get it off his chest.”
Whited is currently being held on a charge of murder at the Morgan County Jail.
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