Alyssiah Marie Wiley’s body was found Friday in near Bridgeport-Trumbull line, identified Saturday through DNA testing
Hours after a body found on the Bridgeport-Trumbull line Friday was identified as that of a missing Eastern Connecticut State University student, a Bridgeport man was charged in her kidnapping and killing.
Jermaine Richards, 30, of 115 Beardsley Park Terrace in Bridgeport was charged with first-degree kidnapping and murder Saturday in the killing of Alyssiah Marie Wiley, a 20-year-old Eastern Connecticut State University student who went missing from campus April 20. He is being held on $2 million bond and will be arraigned Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court.
State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said in a release Saturday that they also seized evidence related to Wiley’s killing from Richards’ home.
It’s not clear what, if any, connection WIley had with Richards, though several television stations reported that they were dating.
Wiley’s body was found Friday in a wooded area on the Bridgeport-Trumbull line, some 80 miles from the Willimantic campus where she was last seen almost a month ago. The 20-year-old was positively identified Saturday through DNA testing. Her cause of death is not yet known, and state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said in a release that she will be autopsied by the state medical examiner to determine how she died.
Wiley was last seen in Willimantic on April 20 as she made her way back to her on-campus apartment at Eastern from a Dairy Queen on Main Street, a few blocks away. University police searched for her after her roommate reported her missing, then State Police joined in the search on April 24.
Her family appealed to the public for information at a news conference on May 2. Her parents said Wiley wanted to go to medical school and get a doctorate in psychology.
“She is not a young lady who would walk away,” her mother, Corrine Martin, said then.
Police located a car tied to her disappearance in Bridgeport on April 26, but have not yet released the identity of its owner. They searched for Wiley at several sites throughout eastern Connecticut and greater Bridgeport before finding her Friday. Her body was found Friday morning when a state police search-and-rescue unit, using cadaver dogs, searched the wooded area off Quarry Road in Trumbull, Vance said. In the area is a busy multiplex movie theater and the city of Bridgeport’s parks department offices.
Read more: Missing ECSU student’s body found; Bridgeport man charged with murder – Norwich, CT – The Bulletin
