Two more arrested in connection with body found in suitcase

Police in Johnstown, N.Y., arrested two more people in connection with the discovery of a body stuffed in a suitcase and left in a Prairie County farm field.

Authorities arrested Leeann Naomi Sager, 34, of Johnstown, and Aaron Rulison, 25, of Gloversville, N.Y., on Tuesday morning on charges of concealment of a human corpse. Sager also faces charges of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree criminal contempt.

They are the third and fourth people charged in what New York police are calling a “bizarre case.” Police say two people placed the body of World War II veteran Robert Brooks, 89, into a large suitcase and drove to Arkansas where they left the suitcase in a field in the Crossroad community west of Des Arc on March 5.

Earlier this month, Arkansas authorities arrested Michael Stivers of Johnstown, who was being held on unrelated charges in the Lonoke County jail, and Virginia Colvin, 56, of Johnstown at a Perry County home. Both are charged with abusing a corpse.

Both remain in the Lonoke County jail with bail set for each at $100,000.

Brooks, who served as a gunner in a B-17 bomber, apparently died of natural causes in his Johnstown home, said Lt. Dave Gilbo of the Johnstown Police Department. Police are not considering the case a homicide, Gilbo said.

Sager and Rulison were released later Tuesday from Fulton County Correctional in Johnstown, a booking officer at the jail said.

Prairie County Sheriff Rick Hickman said authorities won’t extradite Sager and Rulison to Arkansas to face additional charges.

He said he won’t yet identify the body as Brooks because he is still waiting for autopsy result from the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock. A preliminary autopsy indicated Brooks died in January or February.

“We collected some DNA from who we think is [Brooks’] son in North Carolina and shipped to the lab,” Hickman said. “We’re still waiting for a positive identification before we name him.”

Police are investigating the four arrested to determine whether they were concealing Brooks’ body to continue collecting his Social Security payments.

Colvin and her niece, Sager, were Brooks’ caretakers living in Brooks’ North Perry Street home. On Sager’s booking sheet, she listed the North Perry Street address as her home.

Sager also is considered a Level 2 sex offender in New York, Hickman said. A Level 2 status is typically given to those not convicted of a violent offense or considered a sexual predator.

She was convicted April 10, 2008, of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in Gloversville and sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to the New York sex-offender registry.

Stivers, who recently began dating Colvin, also was considered a caretaker, Gilbo said last week.

Hickman said Colvin and Stivers stuffed Brooks’ body into a large suitcase and put in the back of their Toyota pickup and drove 1,300 miles to Arkansas. Brooks’ body was not dismembered, Gilbo said; the man was 4 feet 11 inches tall.

When the two arrived in Des Arc, they sold some furniture from the back of the truck, Hickman said. A child opened the suitcase and discovered the body inside.

Hickman said the two drove off quickly and threw the suitcase into a field before the sheriff stopped them on Arkansas 38 near the Johnson Chapel community.

The White River Journal, a weekly newspaper in Des Arc, said after Hickman arrested Stivers for an outstanding warrant in Lonoke County, Colvin borrowed Hickman’s cellphone to make a call because hers was not working.

Later, when Colvin became a suspect in the case, the sheriff called the number Colvin dialed on his phone, located her and arrested her March 8, the White River Journal reported.

Hickman said if an autopsy proves it was Brooks’ body in the suitcase, he will request that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provide a military funeral.