New Wilmington homicide unit makes first arrest in strangulation case

Wilmington’s new homicide unit was formed October 14th with the goal to solve crimes.

Police in the new unit have made their first arrest in the death of a man whose partially clothed body was found in a Wilmington park earlier this week.

According to police, 41-year-old Marcus Crews is accused of strangling his co-worker, 57-year-old Donald Smith of Wilmington.

Crews and Smith had worked together at Reed Recycling on Lambson Lane in New Castle.

Smith’s body was found in Eden Park in Wilmington’s Southbridge neighborhood on Tuesday morning.

Police would not say where Smith was killed or what evidence they had against Crews.

Crews was arrested on Thursday and charged with first degree murder, felony murder and first degree robbery. He’s being held without bail.

Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings said they’re in the process of building relationships throughout the city to help solve some of the 21 unsolved murders that have happened in the city this year.

“Right now our homicide detectives are in the process of reviewing the previous homicides that happened in the city,” he said. “We’ve brought in a doctor from Milwaukee to go over our homicide review commission. Our deceives are being trained further and again they will be reviewing these cases as we move forward.”