Little Rock police on Monday arrested a 21-year-old man in the killing of a mother and her two children last month.
William Alexander of Little Rock was arrested on three counts of capital murder Monday afternoon at the Little Rock Police Department's station on West 12th Street.
He is charged in the deaths of Mariah Cunningham, 24, and her children -- Alayah Fisher, 5, and Elijah Fisher, 3. All three were found dead on Dec. 5 inside their residence at the Rosewood Apartments at 6600 Lancaster Road, authorities said.
More than a month after their deaths, key details in the case remain unknown to the public, including how the three died and when they were killed. It's unclear if the key details are unknown to Little Rock investigators or have been withheld from the public.
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Photos by Ryan Tarinelli and Staton Breidenthal
Photos by Ryan Tarinelli and Staton Breidenthal
The department also has not identified any motive in the killings, and it was unclear on Tuesday whether the victims knew Alexander.
In a video posted on the department's Facebook page, officer Steve Moore, a police spokesman, said detectives were "able to develop Alexander as a suspect during the course of this investigation."
Moore said police expect at least one more arrest in the case. Lt. Michael Ford, another spokesman, declined to comment further on the slayings. The department also did not disclose the evidence against Alexander.
Online court records indicate that Alexander, before his arrest this week, had never been charged with a felony for a violent crime in Pulaski County. He pleaded guilty to forgery and theft of property in January 2017. In October 2016, he pleaded guilty to a felony count for forgery, court records show.
Alexander made a brief appearance by video in Little Rock District Court on Tuesday morning. He did not speak directly to the court, and Judge Hugh Finkelstein ordered him held without bail.
"I want to say to the community: Justice has prevailed today," said Lt. Crystal Haskins, who is the commander over the homicide unit, in the video on social media. She offered condolences to the family and thanked community members for their assistance in the case.
Last week, Moore said in another video that authorities interviewed a "person of interest" in Chicago, but the person had not been charged in the case at that time.
The department did not say Tuesday whether Alexander was the person investigators interviewed in Illinois. An arrest report said Alexander was born in Chicago and said his listed residence was in Little Rock.
Cunningham's grandmother, Sheba Cunningham, found the bodies on Dec. 5 when she went to check on the family after the children did not arrive at school and she was not able to reach her granddaughter, according to a statement from the Police Department.
Authorities, during the investigation, found that Cunningham's vehicle was missing from her apartment complex. The vehicle was found hours later at another apartment complex in southwest Little Rock, according to a report.
Information for this article was contributed by Brandon Riddle of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 01/10/2018