Deputies: Perry County woman found murdered

PERRY COUNTY, AR – Three people are charged with capital murder in the death of Donna Young, including her own stepson.

Perry County investigators combed the hills near Young’s Houston home, looking for the woman who had been missing since Tuesday. Friday morning, they found her body.

Nicholas Saunders, Melissa Ward, and Dale Young have been arrested in connection to her death. Dale is both Donna’s stepson and son-in-law. Donna married Dale’s father, then later Dale married Donna’s daughter Tammi.

“She’s raised him for 20-something years,” said Neal Berberich, Donna Young’s son. “Everybody has their ups and downs, but she’s always treated him like one of us.”

Berberich is now trying to pick up the pieces of his broken and confused family.

"It's just hard to believe," he said. "It's hard to imagine that he could actually do something - be capable of doing something like that."

Berberich says the three loaded his mother in the back of a truck before hiding her body in the woods.

"They didn't even get off the road that she barely lives on and just backed their truck up to the side of the cliff and dumped her out like she was trash."

The Sheriff says the suspects have confessed to portions of the crime but the investigation into Donna Young's murder is far from over.

"Both of them are pointing fingers at the other one and we've not come up with a motive yet," said Perry County Sheriff Scott Montgomery.

Dale Young's wife, the victim's daughter, was also questioned but the polygraph was inconclusive. The sheriff doesn't believe there are any more suspects in the crime.