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LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas – Officials from the Republican Party of Arkansas announced the death of a former state legislator the same day that unidentified human remains were found in front of his home. Authorities announced Wednesday that they were investigating the case as a homicide.
The remains were found Tuesday night in front of Pocahontas' home, about 210 kilometers northeast of Little Rock, said Arkansas Police spokesman Bill Sadler. He refused to identify the victim and said that the state medical examiner could confirm the identity of the remains later on Wednesday.
Property records show that the house belonged to former Senator Linda Collins-Smith, 57, and her ex-husband, retired District Judge Philip Smith. The state GOP tweeted Tuesday night that Collins-Smith was dead.
The state crime laboratory was in the process of determining the cause and mode of death, the police said.
Collins-Smith served for one term in the House of Representatives and was elected Democrat in 2010. But she changed sides and became a Republican in 2011, the year before the GOP victory in the hands of both Houses of Parliament. the Legislative Assembly.
"I have not changed, I have not left the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party has left," she said at a press conference announcing the party change. Before going to the House, she had sat on the state ethics commission.
She was elected to the state Senate in 2014 and was one of the most conservative legislators in the majority majority chamber. She has often clashed with GOP Governor, Asa Hutchinson, about the state's expansion into Medicaid and other issues, including the draft law on the toilets that are being used. She had proposed in 2017.
Collins-Smith dropped his proposal, which would have prohibited people from using bathrooms in government buildings whose sex does not match their sex at birth, having failed before a Senate committee.
Collins-Smith was defeated in his candidacy for reelection at the 2018 Republican primary.
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