Police Have Arrested Jeremiah Jakson for the Murder of Laura Araujo
[UPDATE: 5:54 p.m.] Police have released a photo of the man they have arrested for the murder of 23-year-old recent Art Institute graduate Laura Araujo. Araujo’s body was found Monday morning with her hands and feet bound, wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a duffel bag on the 2200 block of North Third Street. According to a police statement, Jeremiah Jakson (left) from the 800 block of North 40th Street was arrested today and charged with murder, robbery, theft and related offenses.
[UPDATE] Police Public Affairs just issued a statement: “There is a person of interest in custody for the murder of Laura Araujo. Charges are expected later today. When additional information becomes available you will be updated.”
[ORIGINAL] Yesterday police released information in the grisly case of a woman found dead in a duffel bag, surrounded by her belongings, on North 3rd Street on Monday.
Laura Araujo. Photo via LinkedIn.
Laura Araujo, 23, a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia, was discovered in Kensington, police say, “in a trash bag, folded into blanket, and then … put inside the duffel bag.” Her car was found on fire on the 1600 block of Bambrey Street in South Philadelphia.
Araujo graduated in May from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where she majored in fashion marketing. She is originally from New York, police said, but lived in Philadelphia for the past four to five years while going to school.
“We spoke to both of her parents — she was a very nice young lady, very successful, had a lot of good things in her future and it was very sad what happened to her,” Capt. Clark said. “Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Her body was found found in a vacant lot in the 2200 block of North 3rd Street around 5:30 a.m. Monday. Police said they believe her body had been on the scene for about four to eight hours.
Police have ruled the death homicide by strangulation and blunt force trauma. As of late Tuesday, police have spoken someone they’re calling a person of interest in the case, a 23-year-old man who resided in the same Mantua building that Araujo lived in for the last month. He reportedly showed up at Crozier-Chester Medical Center with burns.
Fox 29 adds that police were on their way to execute a search warrant at the man’s home last night, and that murder charges could come later this morning.
Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to call the homicide unit (215-686-3334) or the police department tip line (215-686-TIPS).
