Nearly three weeks after Detroit synagogue leader Samatha Woll was found stabbed to death outside her home, DPD announced Wednesday that it now has arrested a suspect — though the department said it could not yet reveal any details.
“As part of my continuing commitment to transparency in this matter, I am sharing with the community that a suspect has been taken into custody for the murder of Samantha Woll,” DPD chief James E. White said in a statement. “While this is an encouraging development in our desire to bring closure for Ms. Woll’s family, it does not represent the conclusion of our work in this case. The details of the investigation will remain confidential at this time to ensure the integrity of the important steps that remain. Investigators will be continuing their work with the Wayne County Prosecutors Office until the conclusion of this investigation.”
DPD added, “Further updates regarding this case will be made at the appropriate time.”
Woll, 40 at the time of her death, was president of Detroit’s Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. She was found dead on the ground outside her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood on Saturday, Oct. 21, hours after attending a wedding. The apparent murder also occurred weeks after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, killing some 1,400 people and leading to escalating violence between Israelis and Muslims in the Middle East.
Woll’s death had Detroit’s Jewish community on edge amid fears of rising antisemitism in the U.S. However, in a press conference on Oct. 23, Chief White said that her murder was not believed to be a hate crime, though he did not say why.
It is not clear if that remains the case.
Woll was also a founder of the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit, with the goal of strengthening relationships between Detroit’s Muslim and Jewish communities, in addition to working on several high-profile Democratic political campaigns.
We’ll have more updates on this story when they become available.
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