1993 cold case murder suspect caught

ALLEGAN, Mich. (WOOD) - Tips from the public helped police track down a man accused in a 1993 rape and murder case.

Van Buren Hutchison, 45, was arrested Friday in Indiana.

A woman in South Bend, leaving her house to go work out Friday, heard a man's voice and went to investigate. She saw Hutchison lying face down, barefoot, next to her garage. He said he hurt himself coming through the woods and asked for help.

The woman went inside, told her husband and called the police, who came and arrested him.

Police say he is connected with the discovery of a 28-year-old woman's body in the Kalamazoo River. The victim's naked body was discovered by a fisherman in the mid-morning hours of April 28, 1993, according to 24 Hour News 8 archives. Investigators believed at the time she had been in the water for two to four months. They later identified the woman as Jeannette Reeves of Chicago Heights, Ill., according to an archived report from June 1993, and said she had been tied up before she was dumped in the river.

A Michigan State Police criminal background check on Hutchison conducted by 24 Hour News 8 revealed two felony convictions, one for breaking and entering stemming from a January 1993 incident, and another for a May 1993 arson.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Silent Observer at 1-800-554-3633 or 269-673-3899, or the Allegan County Sheriff's Department.