Psychiatric Tests Ordered for Accused Killer of Troy Woman

FERNDALE, MI – Jordan McClanahan, who is accused of strangling his longtime friend, severing her fingertips with a bolt cutter and hiding her body in the rafters of his home, will undergo psychiatric tests, a judge ruled Tuesday.

McClanahan, 24, of Hazel Park, is being held in the Oakland County Jail without bond on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Jessica Leigh White, 21, of Troy, whose body was discovered in McClanahan’s home May 3.

McClanahan, who investigators said implicated himself in White’s death, also faces one count of mutilation of a body.

Judge Charles Goedert ordered the tests for criminal responsibility and competency at McClanahan’s probable cause hearing in Ferndale’s 43rd District Court Tuesday, The Detroit News reports.

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The tests, which will be conducted at the Ypsilanti Center For Forensic Psychiatry, will take about 60 days. They are designed to assess a person’s mental state, including at the time the alleged offense was committed.

Before his attorney stopped him in his arraignment earlier this month, McClanahan admitted to taking Oxycontin and Xanax and drinking on the night White disappeared.

The last anyone heard from White was about 2:30 a.m. on April 23, when she sent text messages to her mother and a cousin and mentioned an “awkward” situation between McClanahan, who had picked her up at her Troy home late Friday night, and his father.

Karen Black, White’s mother, was concerned when her daughter didn’t return home as expected Saturday and missed a babysitting appointment the following day. Her concern turned to worry due to what she said were inconsistencies in McClanahan’s story when she questioned him about when he had last seen White.

Related

• Mom: ‘Inconsistencies’ in Story of Daughter’s Disappearance
• Suspect Arrested in Murder of Missing Troy Woman
• Accused Killer Strangled Troy Woman, Severed Fingertips: Police

McClanahan helped White's family and friends search for her, authorities said during his arraignment.

Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner told The Detroit News it was “disturbing to know” that McClanahan was assisting the family in attempting to locate a person he allegedly knew was dead.

McClanahan, accompanied by his father, turned himself in to Troy police on the night of May 3. Troy and Hazel Park police had been to McClanahan’s residence several times since White’s disappearance and had searched it.

White had been dead for more than a week when her body was discovered, and identification was difficult, police said.