Paris man charged with murder after 2 bodies found at Sebastian County fire
A 21-year-old Paris man was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Monday after a double homicide in Sebastian County.
Johnathan Carroll Massey is charged with the slayings of Carroll Wayne Elmore and Sharon Diane Bernard, according to a charging document released Monday by Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue.
Massey was arrested Thursday after two bodies were discovered near a suspicious house fire 7 miles northeast of Huntington, according to an affidavit for probable cause also released Monday by Shue.
Massey was arrested by Arkansas State Police while driving a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado pickup that belonged to Elmore, who lived at the house that burned.
“He [Massey] was found in the truck with bloody clothing,” Capt. Philip Pevehouse of the Sebastian County sheriff’s office wrote in a news release Friday.
Besides two counts of murder, Massey was also charged with aggravated armed robbery, arson and theft of property.
According to the charging document and affidavit, the amount of damage to the house was more than $100,000 and the value of the pickup was about $6,000.
Massey is being held in the Sebastian County jail without bail, according to a news release from Shue. Massey is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Sebastian County Circuit Court.
Shue said the case is still under investigation.
The sheriff’s office received a call about 2:30 p.m. Thursday from a utility service worker reporting a house on fire in the 3700 block of East Clarks Chapel Road, according to a news release Thursday from Pevehouse. When deputies and rural firefighters arrived, they found the structure “fully engulfed.”
“A deputy made a cursory search around the house on fire and found two burned bodies outside of the home,” according to Thursday’s news release from Pevehouse.
Interviews with neighbors and family members revealed that a white Chevrolet pickup was missing from the home, and other law enforcement officers were notified to look for the vehicle.
Massey was apprehended by the State Police after he drove the truck to Logan County, according to another news release from Pevehouse on Friday.
The bodies were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for autopsy. Cause of death wasn’t disclosed in the documents released Monday.