Troy Murder: Convicted Killer McClanahan To Spend The Rest Of His Life In Prison

TROY, MI — A 24-year-old Hazel Park man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the April 2016 murder of Troy resident Jessica White. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Leo Bowman sentenced Jordan McClanahan to life without the possibility of parole on March 8.

White’s body was found May 4 in the attic of McClanahan’s home. Troy Police believe she had been strangled to death with his belt on April 24. McClanahan received an additional 10 year sentence for cutting off the 21-year-old’s fingertips with a bolt cutter.

The victim’s mother, Karen White, told McClanahan he was a “monster” and deserved to “rot in hell,” according to a Detroit News report. “Everything about you makes me sick; I wish you nothing but evil in prison and jailhouse justice…”

McClanahan and White had known each other since grade school and occasionally hung out. The Detroit News reported that on April 23, 2016, Jessica White had told her mother she was going out with McClanahan but planned to return in a few hours. She later sent text messages to her mother and a cousin around 2:30 a.m. saying McClanahan and his father were arguing and that it was a “awkward situation.”

Karen White later confronted McClanahan about the texts but he told her that he had dropped Jessica off in Detroit. A few days later, McClanahan surrendered himself to Troy Police.

McClanahan admitted during his arraignment that he had taken Oxycontin and Xanax and had been drinking on the night White disappeared. Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner said after McClanahan’s arraignment that it was “disturbing to know” that McClanahan pretended to help White’s family and friends search for her during the nearly two weeks she was missing when he allegedly knew was dead.

Photo Courtesy Hazel Park Police Department