Sounak Sengupta
NBC’s ‘Dateline: Missing Marie’ follows the murder of 33-year-old Marie Singleton, a CIA communications analyst, in Inglewood, California, in November 1994. The case remained unsolved for nearly two decades before the authorities arrested the perpetrator responsible for the crime in 2008. With the help of developing forensic technology, the victim’s husband, Andre Jackson, was determined to be the killer.
Who Is Andre Jackson?
Andre Jackson and Marie Henrietta Singleton Jackson married in early 1994. They lived with their children from previous marriages in Inglewood in Los Angeles County, California, in November 1994. She worked as a communications analyst with the CIA. When the 33-year-old Marie went missing on November 11, 1994, and her strangled body was found five days later, her husband became the prime suspect in the case. Andre filed a missing person report at around 10:00 am on November 12 with the Inglewood Police Department.
Andre claimed he and Marie planned to attend a high football match where one of the sons, Andre Jackson Jr., played on November 11. However, he alleged Marie was drinking and was too intoxicated to attend the event. He went to the stadium alone and returned to find his wife and her car missing. The police searched for Marie for four days until an individual noticed her vehicle — a 1991 gray Saab — and notified the authorities on November 16. The officers found the abandoned automobile was locked and had its batteries ripped out.
When the officers broke the tragic piece of information to Andre, he was devastated. One of the detectives claimed, “Andre threw himself to the floor and started screaming” like a toddler, banging his fists and feet on the floor. However, law enforcement officials were not convinced by the alleged act the spouse put up, especially after an investigator later saw him acting normally in a nearby car wash. Suspicious, the officers went through Andre’s cell phone records and discovered he had made a single call to his wife the night she went missing.
It was extremely odd, with Deputy District Attorney John Lewin explaining, “When somebody cannot reach a loved one, they will absolutely go nuts blowing up their phone lines.” The officers also interviewed a few of the couple’s mutual friends and learned Andre and Marie’s marriage was falling apart due to the former suspecting his wife was having an affair. According to them, Andre recently threw a jealous fit of rage after learning Marie had lied to him about working at an offsite location when she had actually taken the day off.
Despite strong suspicions and circumstantial proof, the authorities could not arrest Andre due to a lack of physical evidence. The investigation went cold for almost a decade until it was re-opened in 2002 as a part of a routine cold-case review. After finding the forensic evidence retrieved from Marie’s body and the crime scene had not been sent for DNA analysis, the detectives sent the samples to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. The laboratory analysts determined the presence of a male pattern DNA.
Andre Jackson is Behind Bars Today
When Hawthorne police arrested Andre’s son, Andre Jackson Jr., in an unrelated crime, the investigators obtained a warrant to take his blood sample for the homicide investigation. They compared Jackson Jr.’s blood and determined that he was related to the man presumed to be his mother’s assailant. The detectives interviewed the couple’s eldest son, Marcus, who was eight in 1994, and learned his father was abusive and controlling. Marcus also told them about a fight on October 1, 1994, where Andre physically assaulted Marie.
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He also claimed he was at home looking after his youngest brother on the November 11, 1994, night since none of his parents or Jackson Jr. was at home. Subsequent interviews with friends and family revealed Marie had been planning to leave her husband in the weeks leading to her murder and had also informed her children about the impending separation. Based on all the evidence, the authorities believed they had enough to charge Andre with first-degree murder. However, they could not locate him despite searching for him actively.
Finally, the state investigators requested help from the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles, and the federal agents tracked Andre to Tempe, Arizona. He was arrested in mid-April 2008 without incident, waived extradition, and was transported to Los Angeles to face the murder charge. He was held on $ 1 million bail, though he kept professing his innocence and stated, “You are so wrong. I loved my wife with all my heart.” However, the prosecution alleged he killed Marie in a fit of rage after learning she wanted a divorce.
The prosecutors also alleged Andre was racked with guilt after disposing of the body near Dockweiler State Beach. Hence, he allegedly put up fliers near the spot and ripped the car’s batteries out since he wanted Marie to be found and properly cremated. Based on the forensic evidence and Marcus’ incriminating testimony, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 25 years to life in June 2012. The 61-year-old is incarcerated at Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California, and will be eligible for parole in June 2026.
Read More: Marie Singleton Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?
