GUILTY IN - Erika Case, 19, stabbed to death, Vigo County, 6 Sept 1998

Erika Case and her sister were house sitting on Sunflower Place in Vigo County. Erika was found dead the next morning, murdered by a stab wound to the neck.

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Clint Mackey and a friend picked up Erika Case and took her to a Vigo County home where she was house sitting.

The friend said Mackey attempted to have sex with Erika and she continued to turn him down. The two of them then left the house. Both told police later, when they left Erika Case, she was just fine.

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Then, the case went cold, for 15 years.

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The Vigo County Sheriff’s Department was able to move forward with the case with help from the television show ‘Cold Justice’ and TNT. On January 21, Mackey went to the Benton County, Iowa sheriff’s office and confessed.

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Sunrisenow said:

I haven't found a thread for this case on WS, but this example shows that not giving up on cold cases can break the perp at the end.









http://wthitv.com/2014/01/24/cold-case-details-released/


More coverage:
http://wthitv.com/2014/01/24/311/
http://wthitv.com/2014/01/24/erika-case-cold-case-press-conference/

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Chief Deputy Clark Cottom confirmed that Ewing ordered the investigation into the Erika Case homicide be reopened about six months ago. Investigative assistance came from the television drama, “Cold Justice,” on the TNT network. The Feb. 14 episode of the television series is scheduled to feature the Case homicide.

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Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said county detectives had obtained a full and detailed confession from Mackey, who waived extradition to Indiana during a Thursday hearing before a Benton County, Iowa, judge.

Modesitt said evidence is still being gathered in the case and witnesses are still being interviewed.

"We want a solid case, a confession alone in a case is not enough," he said.

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Investigators closely reexamined evidence and submitted it for testing using techniques that were unavailable in 1998. They interviewed more than 30 people, including Mackey, who spoke to authorities in November 2013 in Benton County, Iowa.

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Capt. John Moats said they had the help of former detectives who were building on the case over the last 15 years, and they gathered more information with each new interview of the witnesses. They re-examined all the evidence and new advancements in technology concerning DNA helped them.

Moats said Mackey knew everything they were doing.

Ewing said witnesses would call Mackey and ask him about his involvement after talking with authorities.

“His friends were calling him and…..on Facebook…asking him questions,” Ewing said.

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“Let’s see if social media can help us find a killer,” wrote a member of the Vigo County (Indiana) Sheriff’s Office on that department’s Facebook page on Jan. 16.

A week later, 15 years and four months after the murder of 19-year-old Erika Case in Terra Haute, Ind., that search for a killer led Indiana authorities back to Vinton and the arrest of a local resident who was a teenager in Terra Haute when the murder took place.

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The cold case murder trial of former Vinton resident Clint Mackey has been re-set for April 20, 2015, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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A man charged with murdering a West Terre Haute girl in the 1990’s won’t be tried until the end of this year.

A judge continued Clinton Mackey’s trial to Dec. 14.

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Vigo County Judge John Roach accepted Mackey’s plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and agreed to serve 40 years for the crime.

He also gave up his right to appeal. It’s a deal the family says they fully support.

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