The neighbors of a murder suspect were left in shock after police arrested him in connection to a 30-year-old cold case this week.
Jake Powell was arrested Thursday at his home, less than a mile from where Anthony Smith was found dead inside a ditched vehicle in 1994.
Investigators believe Powell, then 17, shot and killed Smith on June 1, 1994, after they ate at a Pizza Hut in an attempted robbery.
Three decades later, blood was found on clothing at the scene and DNA evidence matched Powell leading to his arrest.
“He was a good person. I looked at him like he was my son,” neighbor Gail Hosey said of the suspect she had known for the last 9 years.
Hosey said Powell helped everybody in the neighborhood, mowing the lawn and doing grocery chores for them.
“He told me he changed a lot, he said he was wild. But I didn’t think, you know, boys will be boys, and he’s a grown man now. But I have never looked at him like he killed someone and thought he got away with it.”
