Sheriff looking for 1 in man’s death

ASHDOWN — The Little River County sheriff’s office is looking for a person of interest after the remains of a 66-yearold man were recovered from a 25-foot well last week along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border.

The body of Bobby Conley of Tom, Okla., was pulled from the well Jan. 3.

Chance Cathey, 33, also of Tom, is wanted for questioning in what Sheriff Bobby Walraven said is a homicide investigation.

“We believe he frequents Foreman, Ark., and Tom and Haworth, Okla.,” Walraven said.

Information on the cause of Conley’s death and whether he had been reported missing was not immediately available.

Conley’s body was discovered after the sheriff’s office received an anonymous tip late in the afternoon of Jan. 2.

“We received information of a possible body being in a well on the Arkansas-Oklahoma line, which is County Road 106,” Walraven said on Monday during a press conference in his office at the Little River jail.

Detectives dispatched to the scene located the well and began removing water from it. When they peered inside the 32-inch space, they spotted what appeared to be a body, Walraven said.

The sheriff’s office manned the site overnight to secure the scene.

Excavation began the next day, which involved removing the well section by section until the body was retrieved.

“Just based on our initial observations, it seemed like a person who had been there for some time,” Walraven said.

Conley’s body was sent to the state crime lab in Little Rock to determine the cause of death.

Walraven said Cathey has factored into the investigation because of an abandoned vehicle found in a slough on Little River 180, a few miles from the well site.

“We’re in the process now of doing a search warrant on that vehicle, and we believe that the person of interest has some idea about the vehicle,” he said.

Cathey does not have a felony record with the sheriff’s office, but Walraven said he has active warrants out of Oklahoma.