He told the witness: “I think I killed her.” Two years later, he was finally arrested for the brutal murder of his girlfriend

Police have arrested a suspect they say has abducted and killed a woman Rhode Island two years ago.

Mark Perkins, 64, was arrested by Warwick police on Wednesday after investigators linked his vehicle’s GPS data to the location where the skeletal remains of 44-year-old Charlotte Lester were found on November 17.

According to the landlord, Lester was reported missing on May 16, 2022 WJAR.

Perkins was on investigators’ radar from the beginning. Shortly after Lester was reported missing, a witness at a nearby grocery store told police he saw Perkins “with blood on his hands and scratches and bite marks on his arm.”

The witness spoke to Perkins and claimed that he and Lester – with whom he was romantically involved at the time – had had the “blowout of the century” and said his house was a “bloodbath.” Perkins also allegedly said, “I think I killed her.”

Court documents state that on the last day Lester was seen alive, she drove to another man’s house and Perkins allegedly followed her, according to court documents. Perkins is said to have sent her text messages asking her to return from the other man’s home.

On May 18, the day he was seen covered in blood at the grocery store, Perkins was allegedly caught on video leaving his home in his truck with an item in the bed. He returned three hours later and the item was no longer in the truck.

Police caught up with Perkins on May 20 and questioned him. They noticed his hands were swollen, but his demeanor was “calm and unfazed” by the disappearance of his romantic partner. He allegedly told investigators that Lester “stopped texting him” and insisted he had no idea where she was. WPRI.

After the interview, Warwick police obtained a search warrant for Perkins’ home. They found the inside of the house spattered with blood and a blood-stained shirt on a clothesline in the basement hanging over a bottle of bleach.

Later testing compared Lester’s mother’s DNA profile to the blood found on the shirt, confirming it was a mixture of Lester’s and Perkins’ blood.

Investigators found Lester’s remains earlier this week and used GPS data from Perkins’ truck to confirm he visited the same area four times in four months – twice in July 2022 and twice in October 2022 – which ultimately allowed them to bring charges against him. with her murder.

Police arrested Perkins back in August 2022, but not for Lester’s murder. Instead, he was arrested for threatening a local radio host with a lawn mower for confronting him about Lester’s disappearance.

He was arrested again this week and charged with first-degree murder. He did not provide an explanation and is in custody without bail.