FILE – In this April 18, 2013 file photo, John D. White enters the courtroom of Isabella County Chief Circuit Judge Paul H. Chamberlain, in Mount Pleasant, Mich., for his sentencing in the murder of Rebekah Gay. Officials at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia found White about 4 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013 suffering from self-inflicted asphyxiation. White, 54, had been a minister of the small Christ Community Fellowship church in Isabella County’s Deerfield Township, about 120 miles northwest of Detroit. He was sentenced in April to 56 to 85 years in prison for the October 2012 beating and strangling of Rebekah Gay. Police say White confessed to killing Gay in her Broomfield Township home because he wanted to have sex with a dead body. (AP Photo/The Saginaw News-MLive.com, Jeff Schrier) ALL LOCAL TV OUT; LOCAL TV INTERNET OUT
IONIA, Mich. (AP) — The former minister of a small Michigan church who allegedly told police he killed his fiancée’s 24-year-old daughter because he wanted to have sex with a dead body has killed himself.
Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant that 56-year-old John D. White hanged himself in his cell at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia. He says White was pronounced dead early Wednesday after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
White pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder in the death of his fiancée’s daughter, Rebekah Gay. Police say he said he killed the young mother to fulfill a desire to have sex with a dead body.
White was sentenced to at least 56 years in prison. He was minister of a tiny Deerfield Township church.
