Plea set in ’94 death of Searcy man

SEARCY — A man charged in the death of a Searcy man missing since 1994 is scheduled to enter a plea June 6.

Brandon Wheeler, 41, of Weatherford, Texas, is charged in White County Circuit Court with capital murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of Jarrod Green, who was 20 when his father first reported him missing.

The father notified authorities days after his son left his home to settle a drug debt Sept. 30, 1994, and disappeared.

Wheeler was originally jailed in Jefferson County, Ohio, and extradited to Arkansas.

Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Reed McCoy said Tuesday that Wheeler was being held without bail in the White County jail in Searcy until Circuit Judge Robert Edwards rules on the issue.

Wheeler and Green knew each other, Searcy police officer and spokesman Terri Lee has said.

Lee said Green graduated from Searcy High School in 1993. She has declined to say whether authorities have found his remains. A police affidavit filed in the case refers to a December 2016 search that used cadaver dogs at a site in rural White County.

Capital murder is punishable in Arkansas by life in prison without parole or by death.