In the late summer of 2007, the city of Lansing, Michigan, was gripped by a series of brutal attacks against women. One of the victims was Karen Delgado-Yates, a 41-year-old woman. On August 29, 2007, she was discovered in a vacant house on Hickory Street by a realtor showing the property to prospective buyers. Delgado-Yates had been severely beaten and sexually assaulted. Though still alive when found, she tragically succumbed to her injuries while en route to the hospital.
The investigation into her death and other similar attacks in the area led police to Matthew Emmanuel Macon, a 28-year-old parolee with an extensive criminal history. Macon was arrested on August 28, 2007, in connection with an attack on another woman, Linda Chapel Jackson, who survived when her dog intervened. Subsequent investigation and DNA evidence linked Macon to the murder of Karen Delgado-Yates and another woman, 64-year-old Sandra Eichorn, who was found dead in her home just two days before Delgado-Yates was discovered.
During police interviews, Macon confessed to multiple murders. In 2008, he was brought to trial for the deaths of Delgado-Yates and Eichorn, as well as the assault on Jackson. A jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder. Despite proclaiming his innocence at sentencing, Matthew Macon was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. In January 2010, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld his convictions. Police have suspected Macon in the deaths of up to five other women in Lansing, but he has not faced charges in those cases.
