63-year-old Charles Cook is due in court today for a preliminary hearing on charges of criminal homicide and robbery. Cook is accused of murdering 76-year-old Myrtle McGill in her home along South 6th Street on December 7th, 1991. Investigators tracked him down last March in Minnesota and he was taken into custody in October, a few months after his release from jail.
Cook had evaded capture for the killing since he was identified as a suspect back in 2007 after state police and the Indiana County district Attorney’s office identified his DNA on a cigarette butt found in McGill’s car, which Cook is accused of stealing and leaving at the Pittsburgh Greyhound bus station after the shooting.
Described as a drifter, Cook has spent time in prison in eight states, for crimes ranging from burglary drug dealing, rape, and assault. After serving time for dealing drugs in Clearfield County, he’d been released from the state prison in Dallas, PA four days before the McGill murder, taking a bus from northeastern PA to Indiana instead of reporting to a Philadelphia halfway house where he was supposed to serve the remainder of his prison sentence. He’s accused of shooting through a kitchen window, killing Mrs. McGill.
Cook was extradited to Pennsylvania two months ago and has been held without bond at the Indiana County Jail since February 17th. He’s due before District Judge Susanne Steffee at one o’clock this afternoon.
