Nephew nabbed in aunt’s slaying

Fort Smith arrest ends 3-week hunt

A Pulaski County man wanted in the Feb. 13 death of his 77-year-old aunt in Sweet Home was apprehended by U.S. marshals Friday afternoon in Fort Smith.

Houston Eugene Henry III, 55, was arrested without incident about 2:30 p.m. Friday at Sparks Regional Medical Center, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service. He was taken to the Sebastian County jail before being transported back to Pulaski County.

Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies found the fully clothed body of Joyce Taylor submerged in the master bath of her Sweet Home residence Feb. 13. Five days later, the sheriff’s office was notified that Taylor’s death was suspicious and would be ruled a homicide, death by strangulation.

A capital murder arrest warrant was issued Feb. 20 for Henry, who rented a house from Taylor in Sweet Home and disappeared the day of her death.

“This has been going on for a few weeks now, and this will hopefully give the

family a chance for some resolution,” sheriff’s office spokesman Capt. Carl Minden said Friday. “Obviously, this is someone we suspect of committing a heinous crime, so there [was] always the possibility that he could hurt somebody else. That is hopefully eliminated now with him being in custody.

“The most important thing is the victim’s family has resolution. There’s not a whole lot we can do after something like this, but we can at least give [them] solace in the fact that somebody is in custody for the crime.”

Deputies originally responded to Taylor’s home for a welfare check about 9:10 p.m. Feb. 13 after her younger sister hadn’t heard from Taylor that day.

“I told them what I really wanted was for them to go into the home because I wanted to make sure if she was in there, she was OK,” said Renee Hubbard, Taylor’s 64-year-old sister, who said the two talked on a daily basis. “I let them into the home, and that’s when they found her.”

Taylor’s 1997 Mazda Protege and her purse were missing, and Henry was suspected by the sheriff’s office of taking both.

Hubbard later told investigators that several of Taylor’s personal papers, including tax returns, life insurance policies and possibly the title to her car, were missing from the home.

The U.S. Marshals Service news release stated that the marshals’ Western District of Arkansas office was notified Tuesday by the Pulaski County sheriff’s office that Henry was in the Fort Smith area. Marshals developed information from interviews and surveillance that Henry was hanging out in the cafeteria of the hospital.

The car was recovered Friday at a body shop in Fort Smith, Minden said.

Hubbard said that her family had no relatives in the Fort Smith area, and she was unsure whether Henry had friends around Fort Smith.

Henry had been released from prison during the summer, Hubbard said. Court records show that Henry was sentenced to 30 years in February 1987 after being found guilty of numerous crimes, including two counts of aggravated robbery and a second-degree battery charge from 1986.

“He had basically been out of our lives, physically, for the last 28 years,” Hubbard said. “He was incarcerated for 28 years when he was released in July.”

According to an affidavit, a person attempted to cash one of Taylor’s checks in the amount of $460 at a U.S. Bank in Conway on Feb. 18. The check was made out to Henry but had Hubbard’s signature on it. Hubbard, who has joint access to Taylor’s bank account, told the sheriff’s office she didn’t write the check.

Surveillance footage from the bank reviewed two days later by sheriff’s investigators showed that Henry was the person attempting to cash the check. After this sighting, the sheriff’s office and family members were unable to locate Henry until Friday.

“There are mixed emotions because that’s my nephew, and I love him, so there are naturally mixed emotions with that,” Hubbard said of Henry’s arrest. “The main thing is, he has been arrested. Hopefully, he’ll tell the truth and let us know exactly what happened, which is most important to us. We want to know what actually happened and get some closure from that so our family can move on.”