[ad_1]
Investigators in southern Virginia have arrested a traveling carnival employee who they say is a serial killer. Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said James Michael Wright, 23, confessed to killing two women and a teenage girl he met during his work in the last 18 days of the year. .
Sheriff of Washington County
The Washington County investigators were contacted about two weeks ago by the Johnson City, Tennessee, police department, to arrange an interview with Wright, who was the last person to be seen with Athina Hopson, a woman disappeared from their jurisdiction. , Says Newman. The investigators spoke to Wright and, based on the interview, executed a search warrant on his truck, which had suffered significant damage in an accident several days earlier. MPs discovered a Hopson cell phone and, in a later interview with Tennessee detectives, Wright confessed to killing Hopson.
Newman also confessed to two other murders, Elizabeth Marie Vanmeter, 22, of Carter County, Tennessee, on February 28, and Joslyn Aslup, 17, of Cobb County, Georgia, on March 9. Newman said Wright had confessed to the three women, but Wright said the killings were accidental – a Newman claim that investigators find "hard to believe."
During a search on Wright's property, investigators discovered two sets of human remains, one in a shallow grave and the other near a few newspapers, said Newman. On the basis of Wright's statements, they were tentatively identified as Vanmeter and Aslup. Official autopsies will confirm their identity, said Newman.
Newman said the three were killed in Washington County, Virginia. Newman added that Wright apparently met Vanmeter and Hopson, both from the same region of northeastern Tennessee, as a subcontractor to the James H. Drew Exposition, which organizes carnivals throughout the south. -is. According to court documents obtained by WJHL, an affiliate member of CBS, Wright allegedly killed William Vanmeter during a dispute, buried him on February 28, and killed Hoperson on March 17 while they were walking around the 17th of March. Wright reportedly told investigators that he had shot at Hopson and was carrying his body in the back of his truck when the remains fell and rolled over an embankment near a bridge. According to Newman, he would have placed the woman's body in the North Fork Holston River. The teams searched the river but have not yet found the remains of Hopson, said Newman.
Tennessee investigators said Vanmeter and Hopson would voluntarily go to Virginia with Wright. A Hopson cousin told WJHL that Wright had asked the woman to come to his house to clean it up and took her to her home. Hopson was supposed to return on March 18 and when she did not do it, the cousin contacted the police.
WJHL
It was not known immediately how Aslup, who went missing on March 8 in Marietta, Georgia, had come to Virginia. Newman said that Aslup was the daughter of one of Wright's colleagues in the carnival business. James H. Drew organizes the carnival at the North Georgia State Fair in Cobb County every year, reports the Marietta Daily Journal. According to court documents obtained by WJHL, Wright allegedly killed Aslup in the woods while he was attempting to kill an animal and then covered his body with logs.
Wright told investigators that he had used a .22 caliber rifle during the three shootings and that he had stored his gun at his grandparents' home in Mendota, WJHL reports. Newman said the investigators have discovered the weapon.
Newman said the investigators are working with the company to determine other carnival venues and will determine if these jurisdictions have reported missing persons.
Wright is held without bail at Southwestern Virginia Regional Prison in Abingdon. He faces three counts of murder, the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime and concealment of a body, according to the prison records. Online files do not list a lawyer who speaks on his behalf.
Commonwealth attorney for Washington County Joshua Cumbow said the death penalty was "on the table".
[ad_2]
Source link