Saginaw Man Pleads No Contest in 2003 Flint River Cold Case Murder

On Feb. 22, 2003, the body of a woman was found in a farm field along the Flint River in Flint, Michigan. The remains were discovered by an individual walking in the area of Seymour and Dorwood roads.

An autopsy revealed that she suffered blunt-force trauma to the face and head, had been stabbed multiple times in the neck, and was strangled to death. Contusions and postmortem abrasions were also present.

She was identified as 57-year-old Jeanette Wilton, a resident of Birch Run, Saginaw, Michigan.

Her family reported her missing around the same time her body was discovered, unaware that Wilton had already met a tragic end.

Wilton was quickly missed. She cared for her father, Joseph Lehner, in her home, and it was soon noticed that she had failed to return to the residence. The last time anyone had heard from her was 10 p.m. on the Friday before she went missing. She had a large family, including three sons: Lee Burnell, Mark Burnell, and Don Burnell, as well as several grandchildren.

In 2021, Michigan State Police's Third District Cold Case team reopened the investigation and took a second look at the DNA evidence. A cold case grant funded the re-examination of evidence at a private lab, Othram, which ultimately led to the suspect’s identity.

Assisted by Western Michigan University's cold case program and the MSP laboratory, detectives were able to create a profile linking a 48-year-old man named Jason Robert Cabello to the case in 2024.

Newspapers at the time reported that Wilton was the third in a string of Saginaw County slayings, but did not mention that the murders were connected in any way.

According to authorities, Cabello had been in a relationship with a relative of Wilton at some point but was “otherwise not acquainted with the victim.”

In December 2024, Cabello was arraigned in the 70th District Court in Saginaw for the murder and sexual assault of Wilton. The Grand Haven Tribune reported Cabello faced one count of first-degree premeditated murder, one count of felony murder, and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In July 2025, The Saginaw News published an article detailing Cabello's history of violence in a statement made by his ex-wife, who was the victim's niece. She testified that Cabello, whom she was still married to at the time of Wilton's murder, was verbally and physically abusive, threatened to kill her, and often drank alcohol. She said that he was also abusive to the children they shared, as well as her mother.

On the evening of Wilton's death, February 22, 2003, Cabello's ex-wife told the court that he said he was going out drinking at a local bar, located about two miles from both Cabello’s and Wilton’s homes. She said she became suspicious of her husband's intentions that night and, thinking he may have been cheating on her, drove out to the bar at around midnight but did not find him there. She said he returned home at around 4:30 a.m.

She relayed another incident to the court, an incident that she said took place around 2008, several years after Wilton's murder. She claimed that while driving to pick up Cabello, she found him hiding in a ditch in a bowling alley parking lot following what he claimed was a sexual encounter with a woman on his bowling league. He claimed he was hiding in the ditch because the woman had been screaming "rape." He told his then-wife that he had not assaulted the woman.

The pair remained married up until 2014.

On April 20, 2026, Cabello pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said of the upcoming sentencing:
“For more than a decade, Jeanette’s loved ones have lived without answers, but with these charges, we are now one step closer to delivering long-awaited justice.”

“I want to thank the Michigan State Police, whose incredible efforts made this breakthrough possible. Their work proves that no case is too cold to be solved, and no victim is forgotten.”

Cabello is expected to be sentenced June 1, 2026, ending a case that remained unresolved for over two decades.