Arrest in Worthington murder

When area writer Christa Worthington was killed in Cape Cod 3 years ago, it launched much speculation, nastiness and even some books (most notably one by novelist Maria Flook.) But now it seems that a resolution is in sight — and it’s a bit of a surprise:

TRURO — After a three-year probe into fashion writer Christa

Worthington’s slaying, a wrenchingly public hunt that once targeted

former boyfriends and exposed intimate details of her life, prosecutors [Friday] charged a man they say barely knew her, a 33-year-old garbage collector with a violent past.

Christopher M. McCowen, a 6-foot-tall, muscular man who picked up

garbage once a week from Worthington’s Truro home, pleaded not guilty

in Orleans District Court to raping and murdering Worthington, 46, in

January 2002.

McCowen was arrested Thursday night, after at least a dozen state

troopers swarmed his run-down rooming house in Hyannis. Investigators

said they linked his DNA, from a sample they took more than a year ago,

to evidence found on Worthington’s body. His arrest could bring an end

to one of the most high-profile and mysterious Massachusetts murder

cases in recent years.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said McCowen, whom

authorities identified as a person of interest early in the

investigation, worked for a private trash-collection company on Cape

Cod and probably knew Worthington only from his job. The day of the

slaying was not a regular trash day.

Of course, some will ask why it took over a year to for the DNA sample to be tested, confirmed and lead to the arrest, but all you need is two words: public funding.