Investigators are “just short” of naming a suspect in the Saturday morning murder of a Detroit synagogue leader and political activist and are confident the slaying was “not motivated by antisemitism.”
“Right now, the evidence has not taken us there,” Detroit Police Chief James White said at a news conference on Monday, the Detroit Free Press reported.
White provided a few new details but left out information he said was known only to the killer.
“We have to be very, very cautious as to what information we share,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “There are very intricate details about this case that, if revealed, could really damage what we’re trying to accomplish.
White said Woll attended a wedding Friday night and left just after midnight night. He declined to say if she left the wedding alone, saying that detail was a key part of the case investigators are building.
Woll was found stabbed to death outside her Lafayette Park home at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, with a trail of blood leading back to her home, as CrimeOnline reported.
White said Monday that investigators believe she was attacked inside her home and stumbled out to collapse in the yard, the Free Press said.
There were no signs of forced entry into the home, he said.
Police are speaking with a number of people White described as “persons of interest” but were “just short” of naming a suspect.
“We believe there are no other groups or anyone else at risk,” he said. “We believe that this incident was not motivated by antisemitism and that this suspect acted alone.”
At Woll’s funeral on Sunday, friends and family packed the Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak Park, along with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and state Sen. Stephanie Change. Woll worked on both women’s political campaigns and had also been on the state of US Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
Woll was the president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, a post she held since last year.
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[Featured image: Samantha Woll/Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue]
