MARQUETTE – More information has been made available on the triple homicide that took place in Schoolcraft County last month.

A 45-year-old male suspect from Manistique was arrested April 26 in West Frankfort, Illinois, in connection with the deaths of three people whose bodies were found in a burned vehicle in Schoolcraft County on April 17. He is charged with three counts of open murder.

At about 5:30 p.m. that day, Michigan State Police from the Manistique detachment were called to a gravel road in Doyle Township where a burned vehicle, a 2000 Oldsmobile Bravada, had been discovered. The vehicle was no longer burning when police arrived at the scene.

MSP troopers from the Gladstone post located three deceased individuals inside the vehicle, who later were identified as Jody Hutchinson, 42, of Gould City, and two sisters, Carrie Nelson, 31, and Heather Aldrich, 24, both of Germfask.

Following his arrest, the suspect was lodged in the Franklin County Jail and held without bond. He waived extradition, and his arraignment in 93rd District Court in Manistique is still pending.

The Mining Journal does not name suspects until they have been arraigned.

According to an affidavit of probable cause for complaint and warrant signed on April 26 by state police Det. Sgt. Jean Belanger of the Gladstone post, Hutchinson was Nelson’s boyfriend and Aldrich was living some of the time with the suspect. A witness stated in an interview Aldrich was receiving cocaine regularly from the suspect.

The witness also said he was with Aldrich when she went to the suspect’s residence and stole a PVC pipe container that had about an ounce of cocaine inside.

The witness said he observed text messages from the suspect to Aldrich advising Aldrich he had 100 milligrams of morphine for her, according to the affidavit. He said he believed the pills were an attempt to bait her back to the suspect’s residence.

A trooper from the Manistique detachment went to the location of the PVC container and recovered it exactly as the witness described.

A known cocaine dealer for the suspect – information confirmed by detectives from the Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team – lives close to and regularly associates with the suspect, according to the affidavit.

UPSET detectives had recently arrested the alleged dealer, who is lodged in the Schoolcraft County Jail on charges unrelated to the investigation. In an April 26 interview with Belanger and Schoolcraft County undersheriff Darrell Dixson, he said he saw Aldrich, Nelson and Hutchinson at the suspect’s residence the day of the fire.

He said Aldrich stole cocaine in a PVC pipe from the suspect, and he observed the suspect talking with Aldrich about the cocaine she took. The alleged dealer said Aldrich took the cocaine and used it at a Gould City motel.

He also said the suspect told him to get rid of her purses and personal belongings, after which he threw the purses belonging to Aldrich and Nelson, which contained their identification, into a river near a campground before the fire but on the same day, according to the affidavit.

Belanger on April 24 interviewed a witness who said she drove the alleged dealer to Merwin Creek where she watched him throw what she believed was clothing into the creek April 17 or 18.

The alleged dealer told the detective the suspect then asked him to follow him while the suspect drove the Hutchinson vehicle and he drove the suspect’s vehicle. He said he followed the suspect to a gravel road where he watched him light the Hutchinson vehicle on fire, after which the suspect got into his own vehicle and drove the two back to the suspect’s residence.

He said while they were driving, the suspect handed him the keys to Hutchinson’s vehicle and told him to get rid of them. The alleged dealer said he threw the keys out the window on U.S. 2, according to the affidavit.

On April 26, the detective took the alleged dealer to the area he described as where he discarded the keys. Troopers searched the area and found two keys, with one being a key to an Oldsmobile Bravada.

The suspect on April 17 called his place of employment, the Schoolcraft County Road Commission, and said he wasn’t coming to work and asked for the week off.

The suspect then left town and was identified as being in Illinois. The alleged dealer said the suspect has family in that state and often would get his cocaine there.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.