Christa Worthington murder: 'Lost' sweater to undergo forensic test in 2002 Truro killing

The man convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 2002 murder of fashion writer Christa Worthington in Truro is pursuing forensic testing of previously missing evidence in the nationally publicized case .

“I’m still fighting for my freedom and my innocence,” Christopher McCowen wrote in an email to the Cape Cod Times Aug. 5 from his cell in Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater in response to questions about his court order.

McCowen wrote that he has not stopped "fighting for the truth to come out."

He has been in state prisons since 2006, serving three life sentences without parole for burglary, rape and murder .

What happened to Christa Worthington?

Worthington, 46, was found dead by a neighbor and former boyfriend, Tim Arnold, on the floor of her Depot Road home on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2002, with stab wounds. Her 2-year-old daughter, Ava, was alive next to her. The medical examiner determined she was killed the previous Friday night or early Saturday morning.

A lengthy investigation did not yield an arrest until more than three years after the killing. McCowen, a Hyannis resident and a garbage collector at Worthington’s home at the time, was among several male suspects questioned in connection with the murder. Police took the unusual step of asking for voluntary DNA samples from men in the community . Seventy-five men agreed, including McCowen.

What is McCowen asking for?

Barnstable Superior Court Associate Justice Mark C. Gildea Jr. on May 22 approved the order McCowen sought to conduct DNA tests and fabric analysis of a blue and white sweater that was worn by Jeremy Frazier the night of the murder, according to court documents. Gildea concluded that McCowen’s request met all the first-step criteria for the court order.

McCowen testified that Frazier was with him at Worthington’s home and was the one who stabbed Worthington with a kitchen knife.

“Anything could have happened. I know I didn’t kill her,” McCowen told state police at the time of his arrest, according to the facts quoted directly in the commonwealth’s response to McCowen’s motion in March, submitted by Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth A. Sweeney.

Frazier had provided an alibi for the night of the murder, Jan. 6, 2002, that was backed up by a friend. He provided a different accounting of that night , although admitted he and McCowen had been together at an Orleans bar earlier.

Sweater was 'lost evidence'

Frazier turned in the sweater in May 2005 but it was only found a year and a half ago in a state police barracks, McCowen’s attorney, Gary Pelletier, told the Times recently.

“The sweater went missing as lost evidence,” he said, and was found in Massachusetts State Police custody , not in the police crime lab as would be expected. A request for discovery of the original evidence list prompted the search for the sweater about a year and a half ago, around February 2023, he said.

Why does McCowen want Jeremy Frazier's sweater tested?

Also submitted for the court-ordered testing were blue and white fibers found in Worthington’s vaginal area and under fingernails of both her hands.

“A DNA and/or fiber match would constitute highly exculpatory and material evidence,” McCowen’s motion for funds on Sept. 13, 2023, to cover the testing stated.

“The DNA of Christopher McCowen and known third parties, including, but not limited to, Jeremy Frazier,” was shipped by the state police crime lab to a Lorton, Virginia facility, Bode Technology Group , separately from the other items covered in the order. A fiber comparison analysis will be performed after the DNA testing at the Microtrace Laboratory in Elgin, Illinois.

Pelletier said the court approved authorization of $5,000 to pay two forensic experts, Eric Carita and Carl Ladd, who will supervise the DNA testing and another $5,000 for a forensic fiber analyst, Jack Hietpas.

“Hietpas will analyze results from a laboratory fiber comparison test to determine if the blue and white fibers on Worthington’s body match the blue and white fibers on Jeremy Frazier’s sweater,” the original order stated.

Fiber match could mean a new trial

Pelletier said a match of the fibers could result in a new trial. He said previous testing of the fibers from Worthington’s body may have been inconclusive. The DNA from the sweater may not be conclusive as evidence because Frazier may have washed it before turning it in, he added.

Pelletier has not received a notice that the testing has been concluded and a tentative hearing on the results scheduled for Aug. 20 may not occur.

“Chris has strongly maintained his innocence,” he said of his client, who “is in favor of finding anything that would link the crime to another person.”

In his email to the Times, McCowen said there are certain things he couldn’t talk about, such as the DNA and the sweater, and referred the questions to his lawyer. He said he could not say who could have committed the murder “because as we all know they (state police) rushed to judgement in so many areas."

Christopher McCowen's wife speaks

McCowen’s wife, Leslie McCowen, 63, of Brewster, who married him in prison 10 years ago, also maintains his innocence, she told the Times in an interview this week.

“There is no way he could have done this,” she said. “I always knew he didn’t do it. I believe he was framed. I believe it was because he was Black.”

Leslie McCowen said she had known Christopher only casually since about 1999 when he came to the Dunkin’ Donuts in Eastham where she worked. She didn’t follow the case until after he was convicted through discussions about it on a Cape Cod website.

After she wrote him, they got to know each other through letters, emails, phone calls and visits at the prison. She said McCowen was stabbed at the first prison he was in, Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction (MCI-Cedar Junction) , formerly known as MCI-Walpole, a men’s maximum-security prison. At the time, a state Department of Correction spokesperson confirmed only that there was a stabbing at that prison on that day.

That incident was harder on him mentally than physically, she said.

He was then transferred to Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster before being moved to Bridgewater in 2008. Now alone in a cell, McCowen has a job cleaning in the gym, has a television and goes outside for exercise, Leslie McCowen said.

“I am angry a lot. It’s unfair. It makes me mad. There is right and wrong and what they did to him was wrong,” Leslie McCowen said.

Several of McCowen’s appeals for a new trial have been denied.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Christa Worthington murder: 'Lost' sweater to undergo forensic test in 2002 Truro killing