Police in Detroit announced an arrest in last month’s fatal stabbing of a local synagogue leader, but did not immediately identify the suspect.
Samantha Woll, the 40-year-old president of Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue, was found dead outside her home on the morning of October 21. An investigation has been going on ever since.
“As part of my continuing commitment to transparency in this matter, I am sharing with the community that a suspect has been taken into custody for the murder of Samantha Woll,” said Detroit Police Chief James White in an update posted to X on Wednesday.
“While this is an encouraging development in our desire to bring closure for Ms. Woll’s family, it does not represent the conclusion of our work in this case,” White said, adding that the “details of the investigation will remain confidential at this time to ensure the integrity of the important steps that remain.”
He concluded by saying that investigators “will be continuing their work with the Wayne County Prosecutors Office until the conclusion of this investigation.”
Woll was killed at a time of increased concerns for the safety of Jewish people in the United States and abroad as Israel went to war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the group launched terrorist attacks on Israeli soil on October 7 that killed an estimated 1,400-plus people.
Police previously shared how officers observed a “trail of blood leading officers to the victim’s residence” in the Lafayette Park neighborhood where they believed the crime took place.
In an update shortly after Woll was found fatally stabbed, White said at that time no evidence had “surfaced suggesting that this crime was motivated by antisemitism.”
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The police chief’s latest statement on Wednesday did not make any mention of whether investigators have since found any evidence of anti-Semitism being a motivating factor.
Detroit police said “further updates regarding this case will be made at the appropriate time.”
Woll, who became a leader of the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue in 2022, had done work for high-powered Democrat officials from Michigan over the years and advocated for Jewish-Muslim solidarity.
Her funeral reportedly drew hundreds of people from different faiths, races, and nationalities.
Dr. Monica Woll Rosen said her late sibling was the “kindest, most generous human I’ve ever met” and “so deeply wanted peace for this world.”