Police: Missing woman found dead in crash
LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas woman who went missing Sunday morning was later found dead in a car crash, according to police reports. The body of Anne Carroll Dwinell, 27, of Fayetteville, was found near a creek in Winslow. State police said her 2012 Ford Focus was traveling on Arkansas 71 at Whitehouse Road when it went off the roadway and struck a tree about 5 a.m.
Dwinell’s husband said he spoke to her on the phone before the crash, according to a Fort Smith TV station news report. She told him she was about 10 minutes away from home. Police started searching for her when she never showed up. According to police reports, conditions were dry when the crash happened.
The incident is still being investigated.
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Virginia man has been charged with killing two Tennessee women and a teenage girl he met while working with a traveling carnival.
James Michael Wright, 23, is accused of carrying out the killings near his home in Washington County, Virginia, over the span of three weeks from late February to mid March. Wright admitted he shot and killed the three victims but insisted he did so ac-ciden-tally, a claim investigators find “hard to believe,” Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
The sheriff identified the victims as Elizabeth Vanmeter, 22, of Carter County, Tennessee; Jot Alsup, 17, of Cobb County, Georgia; and Athina Hopson, 25, of Johnson City, Tennessee.
Court documents say Wright gave investigators details about how he killed the women and disposed of their bodies.
According to the documents, Wright told investigators he fatally shot Vanmeter after they had a fight on Feb. 28. He said he buried her body near his home in Mendota, Virginia. Vanmeter was reported missing from Carter County on March 17.
Wright said he fatally shot Alsup on March 9 after they had sex in the woods near his home. He claimed he was trying to shoot an animal when he shot her instead. He said he covered her body with logs next to a creek near his home.
Wright said he shot and killed Hopson while they were on a walk on March 17. He told investigators he shot her when he tripped and fell. Wright said he put her body in the back of his truck but that it fell out of the vehicle while he was driving over a bridge.
Wright said he could not retrieve the body and left it in a river.
Authorities in first questioned Wright about two weeks ago after the Johnson City Police Department contacted them with information that Hopson had last been seen with him.
Police searched Wright’s pickup truck and found Hopson’s cellphone inside, Newman said.
Investigators armed with a search warrant scoured Wright’s property in Mendota last week. When Wright was questioned again, he admitted to killing the three victims.
Wright was charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony and three counts of disposing of a body. He remained jailed in Virginia without bond Monday.
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Tornado total for April 18 in Mississippi confirmed at 43
JACKSON, Miss. — After analyzing weather data from last month, the National Weather Service has confirmed 43 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi on April 18, making it the second worst tornado outbreak in the state’s history.
A survey of storm damage on Friday revealed three more tornadoes — two in northeast Noxubee County and one in southern Lowndes County.
An earlier survey found five tornadoes in Winston County and one that started in Winston County and ended in Noxubee County.
However, most of the tornadoes on that Thursday were in the central part of the state.
Meteorologists say they are still not through evaluating storm damage. They plan to visit Scott County on Monday to see if the statewide total might be even higher.
