BUFFALO, New York -- Alexander Hill Jr. was captured at a church in Buffalo, New York, Thursday morning, according to victims' family members who said they were briefed by the US Marshals Service.
The US Marshals Service in Buffalo confirmed to WIVB that Alexander Hill Jr. was captured and arrested Thursday around 10 a.m. Hill, who was arraigned in front of a Buffalo Federal Magistrate Court Judge Thursday, will appear in court again in New York before being extradited to Petersburg.
Bobby Mathieson, US Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia, said that Hill was captured in a soup kitchen at St. Luke’s Mission where he had been staying.
"Hill was going by the name Trent Dales and had false identification," the US Marshals Service wrote in a news release.
Officials said that for the first couple of hours, Hill tried to keep investigators in the dark about his identity. However, the US Marshals Service said that fingerprints confirmed Hill's identity just before 3 p.m.
Officials credited dozens of tips that came in over the lasts ten days or so from across the country for Hill's capture.
“We are relieved at the capture of this dangerous fugitive close on the heels of the one-year anniversary of four tragic deaths. We weren’t giving up, no matter what,” Mathieson said. “We hope this arrest will allow the family to begin healing from the pain of their tremendous losses.”
Hill was wanted on four first-degree murder counts for the April 19, 2014 quadruple murder of Pauline Wilkins, her daughter Vicki Chavis Ansar, granddaughter Tanique Davis and great grandson Delvari Chavis in a home on Harding Street in Petersburg. Hill had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt. Hill's connection to victims is that he was an ex-boyfriend of Vivian Chavis, who lived at the home, but was not there when the violence unfolded.
For almost a year, Hill had been considered a "person of interest in the deaths," but authorities recently upgraded the charges.
"A tip came with the exact location of Hill as a result of national media saturation once Hill’s charges had been upgraded to four counts of murder," Petersburg police said in a news release.
Pauline Wilkins, her daughter Vicki Chavis Ansar, granddaughter Tanique Davis and great grandson Delvari Chavis
Hill traveled to Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina by taxi just after midnight on Easter Sunday 2014, according to the U.S. Marshals Service and Petersburg Police detectives. Later that morning, Hill paid a man to drive him to the Amtrak Station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Investigators later said that Hill, who may speak with a Jamaican accent, had ties in Arizona, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia.
Family Members React to Hill's Capture
“I’m being told that it’s confirmed that they caught him in New York and he is in jail now,” said Kenyonia Chavis, who lost four relatives in the tragedy.
Now that Hill has been arrested, Chavis said that she and her relatives no longer have to live in fear.
“Right now, I don’t know how to feel,” Chavis said. “I feel joy. I feel happy, sad, because I don’t have my family members back.”
The family gathered Thursday afternoon at what they once called “Grandma’s house,” where the the victims' bodies were discovered, to honor their loved ones.
“We’re gathering together for the memory of my four angels. My grandmother, my Aunt Vicki, my cousin Missy and my baby cousin Delvari,” Chavis said.
A $15,500 reward was being offered for information that lead to Hill's arrest.
Alexander Hill Jr.
