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BARNSTABLE, Mass. --A Barnstable County
grand jury indicted the man charged with murder in the
death of fashion writer Christa Worthington on Cape Cod,
as prosecutors revealed that the suspect's DNA matched
a sample taken from the slain woman.
Christopher M. McCowen, 33, was scheduled
to appear in Barnstable Superior Court next Wednesday
to face charges of murder, aggravated rape and armed burglary,
Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said.
McCowen, who was indicted Tuesday, was
arrested on similar charges April 15. After pleading innocent
in district court, he was held without bail.
During a bail hearing in Orleans District
Court, Assistant District Attorney Robert Welsh said McCowen
told investigators he helped another man beat Worthington,
and was present when she was killed.
However O'Keefe said no one else will
be charged in the death of Worthington, a 46-year-old
writer and single mother who moved from New York to a
remote home in Truro. She was found stabbed to death Jan.
5, 2002.
McCowen once worked for the trash-hauling
firm Cape Cod Disposal Co., and Worthington's Depot Road
house was on his weekly route.
Authorities have charged that McCowen
broke into Worthington's house, and then raped and killed
her.
Police investigators interviewed McCowen
twice about the case, once three months after the slaying,
and again two years later. After the second interview,
McCowen volunteered a swab of his DNA, which was matched
in April to DNA taken from Worthington's body, according
to court documents made public for the first time yesterday.
Worthington's family has sued McCowen
and Cape Cod Disposal. The $10 million suit, filed in
Barnstable Superior Court earlier this month, faults Cape
Cod Disposal for hiring McCowen even though he had a criminal
record.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive
damages for Worthington's daughter, Ava, the beneficiary
of her mother's estate.
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