A 23-year-old Bellevue man was arrested and charged with murder this week in the case of a Des Moines woman who was stabbed 63 times last August.
Daniel Alexander Threadgill and Synae Araya McMillon-Cooper, were arrested in the death of Jennifer L. Walstrand after Des Moines Police received an anonymous tip.
Walstrand was found after midnight August 30 in her apartment in Des Moines after her dog was heard barking loudly. She had been stabbed repeatedly, had damage to her skull, and according to court documents, someone “had kicked her teeth out of her head.”
Walstrand and McMillon-Cooper were neighbors, according to court documents.
Police interviewed McMillon-Cooper, who denied being involved in the case. According to court documents, she and Walstrand were both involved in prostitution. She pointed police to a well-known pimp as a possible suspect. She said on the night of the incident, she was with Threadgill, a local club “promoter.”
In an interview a month later, Threadgill said he was with McMillon-Cooper the night of the incident watching television at his grandmother’s house.
Three months later, officers learned McMillon-Cooper arrived at her stepmother’s home the night of Walstrand’s death dressed in bloody closes. She said she and Walstrand had “a trick that went bad.”
In May, Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound received a tip that McMillon-Cooper was jealous of the victim, and she and Threadgill, who went by the street name of Midas, devised a plan to kill Walstrand together.
The tipster provided contact information from two other women who witnessed the incident and might be willing to cooperate.
Both witnesses spoke with police and agreed to wear wires to provide evidence on Threadgill and McMillon-Cooper.
Police later arrested the two suspects, and they are being held without bail.
“The vicious attack on Jennifer Walstrand – 63 stab wounds, in addition to the substantial injuries from having her skull stomped on – and the defendants’ total lack of remorse are further evidence of the extreme danger they present to the community,” Des Moines Police Det. Scott O’Toole wrote in court documents.
Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.
