Man arrested in 1990 kidnapping, killing of 11-year-old boy

LOS ANGELES -- (KTLA) -- A man was arrested in the 1990 kidnapping and killing of an 11-year-old Inglewood boy, Inglewood Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.

Eleven-year-old William Tillett was kidnapped while walking home from school in the area of Imperial Highway and Crenshaw Boulevard in Inglewood at around 3:00 p.m. May 24, 1990. The child was later found dead in a residential neighborhood in the City of Hawthorne, according to police.

Almost 29 years later, Edward Donell Thomas, 50, of Pomona was arrested on February 14 and charged with murder, Inglewood Police said.

It is unclear what led investigators to identify Thomas as a suspect.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office filed the case as a special circumstances murder and a “felon in possession of a firearm” Tuesday.