A 24-year-old man from Indiana confesses to killing his girlfriend on Halloween in 2014

February 28, 2019, 20:19 GMT

By Farnoush Amiri

A 24-year-old man entered a police station and confessed to killing his girlfriend more than four years ago on Halloween, authorities said.

Connor Warren Scott, of Danville, Indiana, was formally charged with first degree murder in Clark County, Illinois, where he allegedly killed his 20-year-old girlfriend, Kaylyn Whitaker, October 31, 2014.

Scott became a suspect for the first time when Whitaker was found dead "in suspicious circumstances" in a rural residence in Martinsville, Illinois, police said in Indiana.

But the Illinois state police decided his death was a suicide, and then 10 months later, he was called homicide, according to Danville police.

During the year following Whitaker's death, the case was sent back to court, Illinois police said in a press release issued this week.

By 2018, the Clark County Attorney's Office had planned to lay charges against Scott, state police said.

"On February 24, 2019, before charges were laid, Scott called the Danville Metropolitan Police Department in Indiana," said the state police of Illinois.

Whitaker's parents, Dave Whitaker and Leslie Roberts, told MyWabashCounty, a local news agency, that they were happy to finally see accusations about the death of their daughter.

"I can honestly tell him that I forgive him," said Leslie Roberts on Scott's TV news. "I could not before when it happened for the first time, but that's what I would tell him."

After an interview with the Illinois State Police, Scott was arrested in Indiana and an arrest warrant of $ 1 million was issued Monday. He is currently in custody at Clark County Jail.

It is not known if Scott is currently represented by a lawyer. No court date was set for Thursday afternoon, authorities said.