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The husband of a Connecticut mom whose body was found in a park had cooperated with authorities investigating her disappearance — but his inconsistencies prompted detectives to build a case against him and charge him in her death, police said.
Tahj Hutchinson, 22, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree manslaughter Friday in the death of 30-year-old Jessica Edwards, whose body was found near a trail in the Hockanum River Linear Park in East Hartford.
South Windsor Police Sgt. Mark Cleverdon said Hutchinson’s own cooperation in the case ended up being key in helping solve her disappearance.
“If he kind of turned a cold shoulder, we might not have been able to open it up as quickly,” Cleverdon said in an interview Saturday.
Cleverdon said that it became apparent during interviews with Hutchinson that there were holes in his story.
“He essentially provided us with his account of the events that ultimately we were able to kind of break apart,” Cleverdon said.
“As we continued to progress through the investigation, as we obtained more digital evidence, as we obtained more physical evidence, we were able to kind of say, ‘OK, well, you know this isn’t adding up from what he’s telling us.’”
Hutchinson had claimed that Edwards, who is mother to a 7-month-old boy, vanished on May 10, the day after Mother’s Day — but surveillance video never showed anyone picking her up from their home.
Police were able to obtain “location data” that led them to her decomposing body in the park in East Hartford, one town over from South Windsor.
An autopsy has been ordered to determine Edwards’ cause of death.
Hutchinson is being held on $1 million bond and expected to be arraigned Monday morning.
With Post wires
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