Troy Woman's Accused Killer 'An Evil Monster': Mom

HAZEL PARK, MI – Jordan McClanahan is “an evil monster” who committed “the worst betrayal” by allegedly strangling his lifelong friend and mutilating her body before stuffing it in the rafters of Hazel Park home earlier this month, the victim’s mother said.

Karen White, of Troy, who reported her daughter, Jessica Leigh White, 21, missing after receiving a disturbing text message from her early the morning of April 23, told People magazine that McLanahan, 23, of Hazel Park, “seemed to have some sort of obsession” with Jessica.

White’s mother told People magazine that although her daughter considered them platonic friends, she had been spending more time with McClanahan since the death of his mother in January.

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McClanahan had romantic feelings toward White and wanted to date her and “hang out with her all the time,” the victim’s mother said.

Before his court appointed attorney stopped him from saying more, McClanahan admitted during his arraignment that he had taken Oxycontin and Xanax and had been drinking on the night White disappeared.

He picked her up at the home in Troy she shares with her mother late on the night of April 22. Around 2:45 a.m. on April 23, the victim texted her mother and a cousin about an “awkward” situation involving McClanahan and his father.

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Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner said after McClanahan’s arraignment that it was “disturbing to know” that McClanahan pretended to help White’s family and friends search for her during the nearly two weeks she was missing when he allegedly knew was dead.

He even reached out by text message to ask if there was anything he could to to help find White, her mother told People.

White’s body was discovered in McClanahan’s Hazel Park home on May 3.

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.