Arrest made in ‘98 slaying of teen girl

Keith Paul

Thursday, June 1, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

After chasing futile leads for two years, Henderson Police needed only 36 hours after receiving new information to make an arrest in the 1998 slaying of a 16-year-old Silverado High School student.

Stephen Hodges Finnegan, 30, of Henderson was charged with murder Wednesday night in connection with the strangulation slaying of Jessica Heaney. He was being held without bond this morning.

"We didn't have too much hope (of an arrest) after going over two years, but the detectives told us don't give up because they weren't. And thank God they didn't," said Hedda Heaney, Jessica's mother. "We're so happy. It has given us a little closure knowing they have someone behind bars."

Jessica Heaney's body was found on March 7, 1998, on the floor of a restroom next to the clubhouse and pool at the Arbor Court Condominiums on Bluegrass Court near Eastern Avenue.

Capt. Richard Perkins declined this morning to say what the new information was that led to the identification of a suspect in Heaney's slaying.

But he did say that Finnegan lived in the condominium complex at the time of the slaying. He no longer lives there.

"We don't know if they had any personal contact," Perkins said. "They may have had a previous conversation because they lived (in the same complex), but we don't have any indication they were friends."

Finnegan is a registered sex offender for a gross lewdness conviction. The arrest on the sex offense occurred before the slaying but that case was not resolved until after Heaney's body was found, Perkins said.

Police said at the time of the slaying that Jessica Heaney was not sexually assaulted.

She was last seen about 11 a.m. on March 6, 1998, by friends, who told police they thought she was on her way to school. She was found dead 24 hours later on a Saturday morning by the president of the condominium association, who was checking the clubhouse area, police said.

At the time of the slaying, detectives were able to recover fingerprints they believe were left by Heaney's killer and surmised that she was probably killed by someone she knew.

The old wounds of losing her daughter started coming back to Hedda Heaney when a detective called her Wednesday to tell her of the arrest. She started reliving the terror of the night when her daughter didn't come home and the devastation of learning her child had been killed.

"It was so scary because she always came home and contacted us and let us know where she was," Heaney said. Hedda Heaney said her daughter was a "typical teenager" who was still trying to determine what she wanted to do with her life.

"She was shy at times, but loved to be around people," Heaney said. "We're not saying she was always an angel. She had her moments, but she was loved."

Jessica would have graduated from Silverado High School this year.

Sun reporter Jace Radke contributed to this report.