ELLSWORTH TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Michigan State Police on Thursday increased to $15,000 the reward for information leading to an arrest in the 2018 slaying of a 79-year-old woman whose remains were found following a house fire in Michigan’s northwestern Lower Peninsula. The reward is being offered in the death of Evelyn Louise Ware, whose body was found following the Jan. 10, 2018, fire at her home in Lake County’s Ellsworth Township, WWTV-TV reported. The reward had stood at $5,000 since shortly after the fire. The additional reward money is coming from an anonymous donor and the Detroit Crimes Commission. The Lake County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a homicide, but investigators haven’t released how she died. MSP Detective Sgt. Joe McMillan said her slaying shocked many people. “Evelyn did have several people who called her mom. She was an emblem, an icon if you will, in the community. She mothered to many, many people that were in the community. … Some that were her blood, and many that were not,” he said.
