A convicted rapist wanted in the killing of a woman whose body was found in a self-storage unit was arrested Monday, police said shortly after the woman's father, a N.C. police chief, had pleaded with peers nationwide to find the man.
FBI and U.S. Marshal officers arrested Michael Neal Harvey in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department reported.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police had issued an arrest warrant for the 34-year-old after the body of Valerie Hamilton was discovered Saturday in a self-storage facility in Charlotte.
Monday morning, the woman's father went on ABC's "Good Morning America" to urge peers to help find her killer.
"They took my daughter, guys. Play it right, play it by the rules, but y'all get out there and find this guy for me and when it comes back my way I'll pay you back," said Merl Hamilton, police chief in the Charlotte-area city of Concord.
"She was the perfect daughter ... and I need justice for her," he added.
Harvey, from Niagara Falls, N.Y., was convicted of rape in that state. His North Carolina criminal record includes failing to register as a sex offender and felony breaking-and-entering.
Multiple media outlets reported that investigators went through Valerie Hamilton's apartment and the neighborhood around the Thomas Street Tavern in Charlotte, the last place the young woman was seen.
Police have said they think Harvey is the man spotted on surveillance video leaving the tavern with Valerie Hamilton early Wednesday.
Detectives interviewed guests at an east Charlotte hotel Saturday evening and Harvey's home in northern Mecklenburg County was searched Saturday, but he wasn't home.
Police would not say what evidence led them to Harvey or to Hamilton's body.
Harvey was raised in Niagara Falls and his mother and sister said they believed he was innocent in the slaying, WKBW-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., reported.
