BLOOMINGTON — A man wanted by police for his suspected role in a Bloomington woman's death last month has been arrested in South Carolina.
According to a report from the Bloomington Police Department, a 30-year-old man who police have called a person of interest in the Jan. 28 death of Teresa Michael, 32, of Bloomington, was arrested Feb. 10 in Columbia, S.C.
Officers were first called to an apartment fire in the 500 block of South Basswood Drive around 9:38 p.m. on Jan. 28. Bloomington firefighters quickly put out the fire, however, they located a woman later identified as Michael dead in the building.
The Monroe County Coroner's Office on Feb. 1 preliminarily ruled Michael's cause of death as manual strangulation and the manner of death as a homicide.
Police said they identified the 30-year-old man as a person of interest and that he fled Bloomington and was believed to be in the area of Waycross, Ga. Officers sought not only the man but a 2007 Dodge Caliber that Michael had been driving which was reported stolen.
Officers said while investigators were traveling to Georgia, they learned the person of interest was likely on a bus headed for Columbia and officers from the Columbia Police Department arrested the man when the bus arrived at the station.
Police said the man is being held in a jail in South Carolina on a charge of vehicle theft pending extradition to Indiana.
The investigation into Michael's death remains ongoing, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Chris Scott at 812-349-3382.
