Second suspect charged in death of nurse
The manhunt is over for a second suspect in the murder of Butler County native Caitlyn Kaufman in Tennessee.
Nashville Metro police arrested 28-year-old James Edward Cowan without incident Tuesday night at a housing complex in the city's Antioch neighborhood, about 12 miles southeast of downtown Nashville, authorities said.
A 2012 Butler High School graduate, Kaufman, 26, was fatally shot while driving alone in her sport utility vehicle around 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3 on Interstate 440 in Nashville while headed to work at a hospital, where she worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit.Caitlyn's mother, Diane Kaufman, said her family, who lives in Chicora, learned of the latest arrest that same night after one of the police homicide detectives called.“Part of me was very much relieved,” Diane Kaufman said Wednesday. “Caitlyn had friends down there, numerous friends and co-workers and colleagues. They need as much closure as we do.“But they drive those interstates, they live there. So, I was thankful that this person was apprehended and he can't hurt any of them.”
Undercover police detectives and agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms surveilled Cowan as he traveled to the complex from a nearby motel where he had been staying for the past several days, according to investigators.Police last week obtained an arrest warrant for Cowan in connection with the slaying. He is charged with homicide. On Jan. 6, he also was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list after he was identified as the second suspect.Police allege Cowan was with co-defendant Devaunte Hill, 21, when at least six shots were fired from their vehicle into Kaufman's SUV.A police officer who approached her vehicle about three hours later found Kaufman, who studied nursing at Clarion University, deceased in the driver's seat. The SUV was resting against a guardrail and the rear driver's side window had been shot out.A Nashville medical examiner said Kaufman was struck once in the shoulder, and that she likely died just minutes after being shot.Hill of East Nashville was arrested Dec. 11 on a charge of homicide, and he implicated himself in Kaufman's murder, investigators said. He remains in the Downtown Detention Center in Nashville.During Cowan's arrest, authorities reported that two guns and suspected cocaine and marijuana were found.With the alleged suspects behind bars, Diane Kaufman said she hopes for justice for her daughter.“My kids were brought up that for every choice in life there's a consequence to pay, and (the defendants) made a choice that evening,” she said. “So, I can only hope that they will also have to pay those consequences for that decision.”
