Prosecutors have learned the woman accused in the 1975 death of her teenage roommate has died, weeks before she was set to stand trial in Middle Georgia.
Authorities only recently found out Mary Jane Stewart died six months ago while in hospice care in Texas, according to the Macon Telegraph. She was 61.
Stewart was 18 when 16-year-old Cheryl White was found stabbed to death on Nov. 12, 1975, in the apartment they shared in Warner Robins. In 2017, Stewart, then 59, was arrested in San Antonio and charged with murder in White’s death. She was released from jail on bond.
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Initially, Stewart told police she had an “uneasy sensation” that something was wrong the last time she saw White, before the girls went to bed, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Early the next morning, White was found dead with her throat cut and multiple stab wounds. She had moved out of her parents’ house just three weeks before she was killed.
The case went cold until Stewart’s arrest four decades later. She was set to stand trial in May, the Telegraph reported.
Houston County Assistant District Attorney Eric Edwards told the newspaper he received official notification of Stewart’s Oct. 23, 2018, death just weeks ago. Her cause of death was listed as acute chronic respiratory failure.
Edwards said White’s father was notified that prosecutors would be dismissing the charges.
“He’s had 43 years to make peace with it,” he said. “He was thankful we were going to give it a shot.”
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