State police probe four Stone County shooting deaths in two locations

Arkansas State Police personnel were still compiling evidence Friday evening in the apparent shooting deaths of four people in Stone County, the agency’s spokesman said.

Investigators from the state police’s Criminal Investigation Division worked overnight gathering evidence and interviewing family and friends of the victims. County authorities had called on them for help working two crime scenes at homes about a quarter of a mile apart, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

Personnel from neighboring Criminal Investigation Division companies had been called in Friday to relieve the first investigators on the scene, Sadler said. No arrests had been made as of Friday evening.

Deputies contacted state police late Thursday requesting special agents be sent to 646 Northcutt Road, off Arkansas 5, according to the release.

About 2 p.m. Thursday, a family member reported finding 77-year-old Shirley Watters and her son, 55-year-old James Watters, dead, according to state police. Both lived at the Northcutt address.

About eight hours later, agents were called to another crime scene, located at 5474 Arkansas 5, where William Clinton Trammell, 75, and his wife, Sharon, 72, were discovered dead inside their home from apparent gunshot wounds, state police said.

Authorities have not yet said if the crimes could be linked. State police have been investigating the cases separately, the release states.

“There is no conclusive trail of evidence to say they are or are not connected,” Sadler said.

Stone County Coroner Joseph Blake said his preliminary investigations determined all four people were wounded by gunfire.

Blake, who began his term as coroner in 2019, said he’d “never seen anything like this, as far as homicides so close together.”

But Blake couldn’t say if the killings were linked.

The bodies have been sent to the state Crime Laboratory, where the medical examiner will confirm the cause, manner and approximate time of death, according to authorities.