Nearly two weeks after a road ranger conducting a routine patrol discovered a woman’s body along Interstate 95, authorities have arrested a Pembroke Pines man accused of committing the murder.
A Florida Department of Transportation ranger found the woman’s body lying next to a car on the highway near Oakland Park Boulevard shortly after midnight on Dec. 1., the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
The victim’s name is withheld under Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims to hide their names and information from the public.
Florida Highway Patrol officials asked the Sheriff’s Office’s Homicide Unit to investigate, leading them to Christopher Patterson Jr., 36, of Pembroke Pines. The Sheriff’s Office did not release details about the investigation.
An arrest warrant dated Dec. 6 says Patterson Jr. shot the woman “with a premeditated intent.”
The U.S. Marshals Office arrested Patterson Jr. in Georgia on Tuesday evening, working with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and Monroe Police Department in Georgia, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Patterson Jr. will be extradited to Broward County, where he faces one count of first-degree murder.
