A pet duck led police to crack the case of a missing North Carolina grandmother who vanished over two years in the past, and led to murder costs towards the sufferer’s granddaughter and grandson-in-law, officers stated.
Angela Wamsley, 46, and Mark Alan Barnes, 50, have been charged with first-degree murder Thursday within the loss of life of Wamsley’s grandmother Nellie Sullivan, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office introduced.
Officials say Sullivan could be 93 at present if she have been nonetheless alive. She went missing a while in 2020, in accordance to the sheriff’s workplace.
“We do not have a definitive date when she was killed,” Aaron Sarver, Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, advised NBC News.
However, police consider she has been useless for a number of years.
Wamsley and Barnes had been below investigation in connection to Sullivan’s loss of life since December 2020, Sarver stated. At first they have been arrested on costs spanning animal cruelty and drug possession however by December 2021, Barnes was charged with concealing a loss of life and Wamsley acquired the identical cost on Jan. 7, 2021, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
For years investigators looked for Sullivan and not using a hint.
A breakthrough within the case got here on April 14 when a pet duck dashed below a trailer in Chandler, North Carolina, which led its house owners to uncover a container holding Sullivan’s body, Sgt. Mark Walker with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office advised ABC affiliate WLOS. The sheriff’s division confirmed that report to NBC News.
“Apparently, the duck ran underneath the trailer at 11 Beady Eyed Lane, and as they were chasing after their pet duck, they ran across the container that Nellie Sullivan was located in,” Walker stated to the station. “If I could give that duck a medal, I would.”
“We do not believe she was killed at that address, she was killed at another location and then later transported to where her remains were found,” Sarver stated.
Officers attended the post-mortem and “made personal observations of the body and spoke with staff” and located possible trigger for warrants of first-degree murder, Sarver stated.
The official trigger of loss of life will probably be launched by the health worker’s workplace once they have accomplished their impartial probe.
Wamsley and Barnes have been accumulating Sullivan’s social safety and retirement advantages checks in her absence and have been refilling her prescriptions, officers stated.
Their subsequent court docket date is ready for May 13, court docket information present. It’s not clear if they’ve entered pleas.
They’re each being held at Buncombe County Sheriff’s division, Barnes on $168,000 bond and Wamsley on $32,000 bond, in accordance to jail information.