The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office announced today that a grand jury has indicted Joseph Littlejohn of East Cleveland for the death of 23-year-old Michelle Arnold.
Littlejohn is charged with:
- One count of aggravated murder
- Two counts of murder
- Two counts of aggravated robbery
- Two counts of felonious assault
- One count of gross abuse of a corpse
- One count of having weapons while under disability
He will be arranged at a later date. Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said Littlejohn also had two separate cases pending through the courts, "including an aggravated murder, multiple aggravated robberies, and multiple failures to comply."
He is currently incarcerated.
Arnold, a resident of Maple Heights, was reported missing to Warrensville Heights Police in October 2023.
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Investigators discovered her remains on June 3, 2024, at a vacant property on Strathmore Avenue in East Cleveland.
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Littlejohn is already incarcerated in the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges for the death of Alexander Gurley and for a robbery involving a female victim, both of which occurred on Jan. 4, 2024, in Cleveland Heights.
"Joseph Littlejohn is an incredibly cruel and violent individual,” said O’Malley. “To date, he has murdered two people and traumatized multiple others. Clearly, he has no regard for human life and should remain locked up for the rest of his."
The prosecutor's office said that on Feb. 9, 2024, Littlejohn's house in East Cleveland burned down. In June of last year, investigators obtained a search warrant, combed through the building's remains and found blood that contained Arnold's DNA inside the basement.
In November 2024, police obtained another search warrant and collected evidence from Littlejohn's mother's vehicle that had been sold to a Huron resident, the prosecutor's office said. Investigators found DNA belonging to Arnold in the vehicle's trunk.
Littlejohn previously interviewed about Arnold’s case
Court documents detailing a search warrant related to Arnold's case reveal that about five months before her remains were found, an anonymous caller contacted Cleveland Heights Police and said they were advised that Littlejohn “…killed Michelle Arnold in a robbery gone wrong and the body was either on Strathmore or Potomac.”
The search warrant also stated that just weeks before Arnold’s remains were discovered, Littlejohn told a Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department detective during an interview that “…Michelle Arnold was brought to his home for the sale and purchase of a firearm…'in a blue sedan by'…two acquaintances.”
According to the documents, Littlejohn said that after the sale of the firearm, the vehicle left with Arnold and that Arnold never entered his home. He later learned that someone had “…shot and killed Arnold.”
Arnold’s family seeks justice
Shortly after Arnold was reported missing, anchor Damon Maloney spoke to her family. Her sisters and mother said a friend had taken Arnold to a home on Banbury Circle in Warrensville Heights to collect belongings, and they never saw or heard from her again.
RELATED: Michelle Arnold's family reacts to her remains being found in East Cleveland
On Nov. 15, 2023, police were seen entering and exiting Arnold’s Maple Heights home. At that time, her family said Arnold had diabetes and used an insulin pump.
"She's a very dependent person," said her sister Ebony Arnold. "She's a very severe diabetic. She hasn't taken any of her medication. It's still in the house. And there's just nothing, no social media (and) she was very big on social media. No one's heard from her. No one's seen her. No calls. Her phone has been completely shut off."
News 5 continued to check in with Arnold’s family as they searched neighborhoods for clues and celebrated what would have been her 24th birthday.
RELATED: Family of missing Maple Hts. woman prepares to celebrate her birthday, continues to search for clues
Remains found in June 2024
On June 3, 2024, investigators discovered remains in the backyard of a vacant property on Strathmore Avenue in East Cleveland. Two days later, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as those of Arnold.
RELATED: What led investigators to the body of a missing Maple Heights woman
Ebony Arnold spoke to News 5 about the tragic discovery.
“It’s terrible what we’re doing to each other out here. It’s sick. You know, she didn’t deserve that,” Ebony said. “They had trash and stuff over her body and furniture and things like she was trash… like she was nothing.”
Ebony reiterated her fight to get answers and to not give up until those responsible for her sister’s death were caught and convicted.
“Never. I said that from day one,” Ebony told News 5's Maloney. “I’m never going to give up. Never ever going to give up until everybody… everybody is brought in. Period."
Arnold remembered as a kindhearted soul
Arnold, nicknamed “Chelle,” graduated from Maple Heights High School in 2018, where she was a member of the Students of Promise program.
Ebony described her sister as funny and kindhearted.
"(She) never had a record. Never been in jail. Never been in trouble," Ebony said. "She had a great heart and would give you the clothes off of her back. A wonderful student, a wonderful sister, (and) a wonderful daughter."
