| Updated: 9/01/2011 6:34 pm |
Published: 9/01/2011 6:14 pm |
SHERWOOD, AR - Fox 16 News has learned a “person of interest” is a Sherwood woman’s kidnap and murder is in jail on unrelated charges.
Sherwood Police are not saying much about this person of interest. He has not been charged with the disappearance and murder of Katherine Cleary, therefore we are withholding his name.
FOX16 News spoke with a neighbor on Thursday who positively identified the person of interest as working next door to Cleary's home doing yard work.
Cleary disappeared August 21st. Her daughter and neighbor found her home in disarray.
The morning Cleary disappeared surveillance cameras at the Jacksonville Wal-Mart showed two women using Cleary’s credit card to purchase a flat screen TV.
Sonia Bell, 39, and Rhonda Glassburner-Strong, 51, were arrested and charged with theft but were not charged in Cleary’s disappearance.
Investigators say Glassburner-Strong told them to search the end of Boyd Road off of Wooten Road to find items belonging to Cleary.
Instead detectives found the badly decomposed body of Cleary in remote Pulaski County woods just east of Interstate 440 near Jacksonville.
FOX16 News has learned police arrested a person of interest in the case on unrelated drug charges just a few hours before Cleary's body was discovered. A police report says the arrest happened on Hwy 107 & Club Road in Sherwood.
He is being held in jail without bond on charges of possession of cocaine, battery, disorderly conduct, and forgery.
Officer Josh Adams with Sherwood Police says it does not surprise him that neighbors of Cleary recognize the individual.
"I know he was of person of interest to begin with," Adams says. "Now, whether he was a person of interest during the traffic stop on him and arrested on the various charges, not sure. It definitely helps because now he is incarcerated and it makes it easier for investigators to go talk to him."
Sherwood police are not revealing his connection to the two women who used Cleary’s credit card or to the victim.
