Police: Man raped, murdered elderly woman

AKRON, Ohio - Police have made an arrest in the murder of a 73-year-old Akron woman.

Police said family members found Clara Virginia Wilfong unresponsive in her bed on May 28. On Tuesday, police arrested Devon Daire Owens, 38, of Warren, and charged him with murder, aggravated burglary and rape.

Akron police were able to identify the suspect with the help of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

“Akron police contacted our BCI crime lab within hours of Ms. Wilfong’s body being discovered. Members of our lab staff immediately jumped into the case and spent hours doing forensic biology testing and DNA testing,” Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said in a release on Tuesday.

Wilfong was brutally attacked in her Browns Street apartment, Akron police said. Family members forced their way in after she didn’t answer the door, and found the suspect partially-clothed in Wilfong’s bedroom. Witnesses told police he fled out of a window.