Three years after one of her children found Melissa White’s body in the yard of their home, a Mercer County man has reportedly confessed to the woman’s murder.
William ‘Pete’ White was considered a person of interest in the death of 39-year-old Melissa White after she died of skull fractures she suffered in a brutal beating in October 2011. One of her young children found Melissa in the yard of her home in Viola, Illinois.
Melissa had filed for an order of protection against her estranged husband shortly before her death. Court records showed Pete White was cited for violating that order in July 2011, and that he was sentenced to 24 months of probation after pleading guilty to that charge in January 2012.
In the three years since her death, Pete White had repeatedly denied having anything to do with Melissa’s murder.
Now, his story has apparently changed.
Pete White was jailed shortly after Melissa’s death. He was held on unrelated charges connected to allegations that he was found driving a riding lawn mower on a street without a license in August 2011. White was also accused of threatening a public official, after he allegedly told a prison official he was going to harm Mercer County Public Defender Dan Dalton. White was scheduled to face jury trial in late October in connection with those cases.
As that trial date approached, William ‘Pete’ White reportedly confessed to another jail inmate that he had killed Melissa.
The prosecutor explained during an October 15 hearing that, during an interview in early August, another inmate who shared a cell with White said White had admitted to killing Melissa. The inmate reportedly said White first told him "they'll never find out," and then - when asked again about her death - Pete White allegedly told the inmate he killed Melissa White.
William 'Pete' White was formally charged Wednesday, October 15, 2014, with one count of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Melissa White.
At that appearance, White was formally arraigned and, through is attorney Nathan Nieman, White waived a preliminary hearing on the charge.
The case was set for a pretrial conference Monday, October 27, 2014.
White was held without bond in the Mercer County Jail.