A federal inmate was charged Thursday with the 2005 slaying of a 5-year-old northern Iowa girl. He was living with the girl and her mother when she vanished.
Casey Frederiksen has been charged with first-degree murder and sexual abuse in the death of Evelyn Miller.
Authorities announced the development in Floyd, the town of 330 where the girl disappeared from an apartment where she lived on July 1, 2005. After a search by volunteers and police, her body was discovered two miles away on the banks of the Cedar River days later.
Frederiksen, the fiance of Miller's mother, had claimed he was sleeping when Miller vanished. He's in federal prison on child pornography and methamphetamine offenses, which came to light during the search for Miller's killer.
The girl's grandparents say they suspected him all along. “This is the happiest day in the last seven years we've ever had,” said grandfather Richard Christie. “We're very thankful for the resolution and we are very hopeful and prayerful that justice will be served.”
Investigators say Frederiksen made incriminating statements to other inmates, leading to this latest development. He'll finish out his current sentence and then be tried for Evelyn's murder.
