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St. Ignace Man Formally Charged With Grandmother’s Murder

"Come to find out that something horrible had happened," neighbor Ben Doddema said.

Police say a St. Ignace man turned himself in for killing his own grandmother.

Investigators are not saying how Barbara Trainor-Hoyt was killed.

They say Jacobb St. Andrew turned himself in to the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office Saturday.

Barbara was killed at her home in St. Ignace around 5 a.m. that morning.

9 & 10’s Blayke Roznowski and photojournalist Noah Jurik have the latest details on the investigation and how neighbors are reacting.

"This is probably a family’s worst nightmare that one, they lose the loved one to begin with, but then it’s caused by a direct family member," St. Ignace City Police Department Chief Mark Wilk said. 

The St. Ignace Police chief says state police arrived on scene first and found Barbara Trainor-Hoyt unconscious in her bed. 

Neighbors say they saw the police activity and knew something bad happened.

"We figured right away, you know, the poor little lady that lived there, what happened to her?," Doddema said. "Obviously we had no idea."

Ben Doddema and his wife Rita say one of their granddaughters was friends with Jacobb St. Andrew when they were teenagers. 

"When we saw him he just adored his grandma, just totally adored her," Doddema said. "Now, him being accused of doing something horrific like this, it’s just hard to wrap your mind around." 

They say this is a tragedy in more way than one. 

"It’s just sad because of, you know, two lives being taken by something like this," Doddema said. "Yeah, sure Jacobb might still be alive, but he still has to live with this for the rest of his life." 

St. Andrew will be back in court in the next couple of weeks.

Trainor-Hoyt’s body was sent to Grand Rapids for an autopsy Monday, but it may take several weeks for results.

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