Police think an Ohio man who is currently in jail and charged with a murder in Lansing committed an armed robbery in Otsego.
Otsego Police Department Det. Bruce Beckman said he was seeking police reports from the Michigan State Police and from Ohio.
“We do have a good suspect and he has been arrested and is in the Ingham County Jail for crimes in Lansing,” Beckman said. “The evidence they have coincides with the clothing and time frame when he’d have been in Otsego.”
The Clark gas station in downtown Otsego was robbed about 10:25 p.m. July 5. Police said a man approached the clerk and threatened them with a weapon, demanding money. The man stole money and merchandise. A person police believe was the robber was captured in a security video from a nearby business.
Beckman said the man didn’t have any ties to the area he’d been able to find.
“It’s believed he ended up being on crime spree,” Beckman said. “Starting in Ohio, came into Michigan and was eventually arrested in South Bend and brought back to Ingham.”
Beckman said once he receives other agencies’ police reports—assuming everything checks out—he’ll seek a warrant.
“There’s no rush to justice for us because we know our guy is in jail,” Beckman said. “He’s not getting out of jail.
“Theirs tops mine, no one got hurt in ours.”
Beckman didn’t want to name the man, because he didn’t want to possibly interfere with anyone’s investigation.
The Lansing State Journal reported Curtis Jamaar Echols, 25, of Paulding, Ohio, has been arrested and charged with the murder of a 43-year-old woman in a Lansing motel. Echols meets the general description of the man seen in Otsego.
The State Journal reported the woman, Christina Daughenbaugh, came to Echols’ room at 3:36 a.m. on July 6 after he checked in a few hours earlier (the Otsego robbery happened at 10:25 p.m. July 5). Daughenbaugh was found dead in the room by the cleaning crew about noon.
The State Journal reported investigators were able to find Echols’ cell phone number because he’d ordered pizza and tracked him down aboard a Greyhound bus going from Detroit to Chicago. Police found a car they believe Echols stole in Ohio near the Detroit bus station.
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