At a home in South Euclid Friday, Chris Whitaker’s great aunt spoke on the condition that her name not be used for this story.
She described her 44-year old nephew as a father and grandfather, but not as a predator.
“God is going to come out and show the right one,” she said. “I know it’s not in his heart, not in his heart ‘cause I raised him up.”
According to police, DNA evidence linked Whitaker to a home on Fuller Avenue on Cleveland’s East Side, where they found the body of 14-year-old Alianna Defreeze on Sunday.
According to the criminal complaint, Whitaker “purposely and with prior calculation” caused her death.
It does not mention how.
“Our hearts go out to the other family,” his aunt said. “I pray to God that they get the right person.”
Police arrested Whitaker last night without incident at the Villa Serena apartments on Mayfield Road, where he was staying with family.
It came nearly 12 years after an incident at the Trinity Towers apartments on Rockside Road in Bedford Heights, which led to a sexual assault conviction.
Whitaker was 32 at the time and asked a friend’s girlfriend, who was 45, to use her bathroom. He then came out with scissors and attacked her when the friend left.
He served four years for the crime.
Friends who say they went to Garfield High School with Whitaker knew him as “Chris Summers.”
While some described him as “aggressive” and “creepy,” they were surprised by the recent allegations.
One pointed to what appears to be Whitaker’s personal Facebook page, “BlackLion Thalastson NineEther,” saying it could be read as “Blacklion the last on 93rd.”
Several unsolved murders have occurred in recent years near East 93rd Street in Cleveland.
Police say they are in the “very early stages” of determining whether Whitaker may be connected to them. They are running his DNA case by case.