JACKSON, Mich. -- A convicted robber is accused of walking away from a prison camp, fatally stabbing a man and his wife and then returning to prison to establish an alibi.
Cary J. Harden, 25, of Detroit, was arraigned Tuesday in Jackson District Court on two counts of open murder, two counts of felony murder and one count of robbery.
Sgt. Tom Corwin of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department said Harden is accused of killing Edward Mroz, 46, and his wife, Janet, 47, at their Leoni Township home June 4.
Harden, who changed his name in prison to Harden-Bey, was assigned to the utility and fence crew at Root Farm, an unfenced, minimum-security unit operated by the Southern Michigan Prison at Jackson.
The couple's home was next to prison property on an isolated dead-end street. Their bodies, each stabbed many times, were discovered by their daughter. Investigators said there were signs of a struggle.
Police said Harden apparently walked away from the overcrowded prison farm on June 4 and returned undetected less than two hours later in an apparent attempt to establish an alibi.
Corwin said the suspect was identified through evidence at the scene of the crime, but declined to give details.
Corwin said authorities don't know the motives for the slayings of Mroz, an unemployed truck driver, and his wife, a Michigan Bell Telephone Co. worker.
Harden was serving a 15-to-30-year sentence and 2-to-10-year term for two armed robberies.
