Buckeye police make arrest in Jesse Wilson case

Buckeye police announced Tuesday they have arrested Crystal Wilson in the case of her dead 10-year-old adopted son, Jesse, who went missing in 2016 and was found dead nearly two years later.

Wilson, 54, was arrested in Gainesville, Georgia, on Monday on charges of "abandonment or concealment of a dead body," a class five felony, Buckeye police Chief Larry Hall told reporters Tuesday.

"Through the course of the investigation, it was a blessing and a curse that it was a high-profile case because we had got a lot of leads on this case, but all of our leads led back to Crystal being responsible," Hall said.

"It's a tough case. She knows what happened; she's not telling us." Hall told reporters Tuesday.

Jesse's case made headlines in 2016.

He was last seen in his room in his Buckeye home on the night of July 17, 2016. Buckeye police at the time determined he left through a window in his bedroom. Wilson, his adoptive mother, reported the disappearance the morning after.

Authorities quickly deemed the situation critical due to sweltering midsummer heat and the dangers the boy could face while walking alone. Jesse was known to slip out of the house to walk around the neighborhood at night, but he would never leave for long.

Buckeye police had even brought the boy home after one incident prior to his disappearance. When asked by reporters if action could've been taken at that time, Hall said he didn't think so.

"Based upon that incident alone, there was nothing to indicate that he needed to be removed from the house and if there was, we would've contacted DCS (the Arizona Department of Child Safety). There was nothing on that initial call to indicate abuse, neglect or anything along those lines." Hall said.

Jesse's disappearance prompted an extensive and prolonged search.

Search parties involved federal investigators, neighbors and other volunteers. Teams worked throughout the summer to try and find Jesse. The Buckeye Police Department continued investigating for months, but for nearly two years, there were few updates on the case.

Then, on March 8, 2018, a Buckeye employee found scattered skeletal remains near the intersection of State Route 85 and Broadway Road. Later that month, DNA analysis demonstrated that the remains were Jesse's.

The location of his remains was over 6 miles away from his house, but it was within a perimeter initially searched in the summer of 2016. According to police, the area was prone to flooding, and initial searches were unable to lead to Jesse's remains because the area was flooded at the time.

His cause of death was considered "undetermined," but police investigated the case as a homicide with the help of the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force. Police never revealed any meaningful leads or named any suspects.

Buckeye police investigators at the time had even reportedly been "inching" toward a no-body homicide case against Wilson just five weeks after her boy went missing.

Hall noted to reporters on Tuesday that he believes the main cause of Jesse's death was neglect, citing "issues at the house."

"There were some factors at the very beginning of the investigation with some issues at the house relating to air conditioning being out and just a few factors in my mind relating to it," Hall said.

The statute of limitations for a class five felony in Arizona is seven years, but since Wilson had fled to Georgia shortly after Jesse's death, that time did not run.

When asked why Wilson had not been charged with homicide, Hall said that the information needed to carry that charge in the recovery of Jesse's body was not provided.

The case broke after Buckeye police reassigned it in November 2020 to a new investigator, who gathered new evidence and reexamined old leads. The new Buckeye detective worked with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to explore new angles.

Ultimately, authorities linked Wilson to Jesse's body through the use of DNA evidence along with "visual evidence" placing her near the area where Jesse's remains were found.

"We collected DNA from her Jeep. ... Visual evidence puts her in the area where the remains were recovered," Hall said.

Jesse's biological grandmother, Cynthia Lauderdale, also told reporters on Tuesday that she had had her suspicions about Wilson.

"I did have my suspicions from the beginning just from what people were saying and people that knew her," Lauderdale said.

A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Wilson on the sole concealment charge on Dec. 9. She will now be extradited to Maricopa County for prosecution.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Crystal Wilson arrested in missing boy case of Jesse Wilson