Suspect arrested in 17-year-old’s death

WENATCHEE – Acquaintances say the man accused of killing a 17-year-old Wenatchee girl was obsessed with death, corpses and serial killers, according to court documents.

Christopher Scott Wilson, 29, is being held for the slaying of Mackenzie Cowell, his beauty school classmate. Bail was set at $1 million Thursday.

Wilson was arrested Wednesday after DNA evidence found on duct tape linked him to the crime, police said.

Cowell was last seen Feb. 9 at a beauty school she and Wilson attended. Her body was found four days later along the Columbia River.

Court documents filed this week indicated several people contacted police about Wilson after Cowell disappeared.

One person wrote a letter to police in August claiming Wilson had an “obsession with death, dead bodies and serial killers” and once tried to choke a female friend. Another woman told police he told her he used a belt to strangle a guest at an Ellensburg area hotel where he worked several years ago, according to the documents. Police said Thursday they had not found any unsolved killings in the Ellensburg area.

A woman who was a student at the Academy of Hair Design with Wilson said he told her he “liked to cut people up” when he was working at funeral homes. Investigators said Wilson worked at several funeral homes in the area.

Police said Cowell was beaten, stabbed and strangled. An autopsy report concluded someone tried to cut off her arm after she was dead.