A DNA hit under a woman’s fingernails allegedly linked a man to an unsolved 1998 Gary homicide, according to criminal charges unsealed Wednesday.
Alfred “Sunday School” Sanders, 68, is charged with murder in the Dec. 29, 1998 death of Jacqueline Soto, 33, of Gary.
He was arrested Wednesday, according to the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office. Hobart Police Assistant Chief Nick Wardrip, a cold case investigator, reexamined the case.
Gary Police responded around 9:15 p.m. Dec. 29, 1998 to the 500 block of Buchanan Street.
An older friend, then 72, went to check on Soto when he hadn’t heard from her. He found the door unlocked. She was lying unresponsive with her face in a pot, the affidavit states.
Wardrip wrote then-Gary Police Det. Bruce Troxel considered Sanders an early suspect, describing him as an alleged drug dealer, and said the pair had been “feuding,” charges show.
Soto was likely killed in a “violent struggle,” Wardrip wrote.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office concluded she was strangled to death and ruled it a homicide.
Troxel wrote Soto was found with Christmas lights wrapped around her neck, the affidavit states. Her clothes were disheveled, and there were signs of “blunt force” to the back of her head.
Broken glass from a coffee table and blood were found throughout the crime scene, he wrote. There were signs drugs were being used on a dresser and dining table, charges state. There were no signs of forced entry, but bloody shoe prints were at the scene.
Sanders told Wardrip in an interview in September he believed a “dope guy from Aetna (a Gary neighborhood)” killed her, charges state.
There wouldn’t be any evidence linking him, Sanders said, who consented to a DNA swab.
After a DNA hit on Soto’s fingerprints matched him, Wardrip re-interviewed him in February.
Sanders said in the interviews that Soto bought drugs from him and sometimes sold his drugs, but she didn’t mess up drugs or the money and he “didn’t have a problem” with her, charges state. He denied having a sexual relationship with her, the affidavit states.
A witness told Wardrip that Soto was afraid of him, describing Sanders as “heavy set” and walking with a “limp.”
The relationship was “tense” and “drug-motivated,” Wardrip wrote.
A 1998 Post-Tribune story noted Soto was separated from her husband at the time. The article noted that a TV was also taken from the home.
Anyone with more information can contact Wardrip at 219-942-4899 or nwardrip@cityofhobart.org.
