'We never give up on victims': Arrest made in 3 decade old Pontiac cold case
Arrest made in Pontiac cold case nearly three decades later
According to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, they have arrested 45-year-old Jack Anthony Young from Mishawaka, Indiana. He was placed in an Indiana jail awaiting formal murder charges.
OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - The murder of an elderly Pontiac man has potentially been solved after 27 years.
Police arrested a 45-year-old man in Indiana who they say is the one who pulled the trigger.
Seventy-three-year-old Charles Barnett was murdered in his home on Corwin Avenue in Pontiac in 1998. The case went unsolved for 27 years, until 2025.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, they have arrested 45-year-old Jack Anthony Young from Mishawaka, Indiana. He was placed in an Indiana jail awaiting formal murder charges.
What they're saying:
On April 30, 1998, Barnett was coming home. That’s when officials say Young was inside Barnett's home burglarizing it. He was surprised, allegedly shooting the 73-year-old man, and then police say Young stole his car only to crash it a little bit later.
The case went cold after that as Pontiac police investigated.
In 2020, the case was reopened, and police now believe they have their man.
"In this case, the folks looked back in this file that predates us doing policing in Pontiac and looked at all the evidence and found one piece of evidence hadn’t been fully tested using the latest technology with some of the crime scene stuff, so they did that and got a match," said Sheriff Michael Bouchard. "We never give up on victims. If you’ve been the victim of a rape or homicide, we haven’t given up on getting you justice, your family justice, the community justice."
Young is in an Indiana jail and is expected to be extradited here for his formal charges.