2002 missing persons case solved

SALEM — In a case that spanned from the rural Arkansas community of Salem to both coasts, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spent thousands of dollars and hundred of hours working with the FBI to close a complex, convoluted case that resulted in a double murder in Alton, Missouri.

Angela Mack Cox and her son, Mikey Rettew, 4, were killed by Clarence Krusen in December 2002, according to a statement given by his widow, Barbara Krusen to FBI investigators in Portsmouth, Va., last week.

“This case could have never been solved without Dale Weaver and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it is very technical and there were so many stories being told that had to be filtered to get to what really happened,” said Albert Roork, Fulton County Sheriff.

“It is my hopes that this will bring some closure to the friends and family of Angela and Mikey. My thanks to Investigator Dale Weaver and the Federal Bureau of Investigation who gave us two of their best agents to help resolve this case,” Roork said.

The mother and son were first reported missing Sept.

1, 2002, when Roork, who was then chief of the Salem Police Department, took a missing person report on Thomas Michael “Mikey” Rettew, 4, from his father Tommy Rettew.

According to a press release from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Cox had arranged for the Krusens to adopt Mickey for a sum of money in 2002, but then changed her mind after living in Chowchilla, Calif., for a time. The Krusens arranged for Cox to return to their farm in December 2002.

“Barbara stated that it angered both her and Clarence and she told Angela she needed to come back and pick up Mikey, that she didn’t want to just be a babysitter. She stated they sent Angela the money to come back and they sent her either money or a bus ticket the second time. She said she met her (Angela) at the bus station in Springfield, Missouri, and the following day they went back to the farm and met Clarence and Mikey and stayed there the following evening. She stated that the following morning when she got up Angela and Mikey were gone and that Clarence had told her someone came and picked them up. She stated she did not hear any vehicle come or leave from the residence that night or the following morning.”

During a Friday, April 2, polygraph interview with FBI agents, she said Clarence had told her that he had done away with both Angela and Mikey and destroyed their bodies in a furnace at the farm house.

During the course of the investigation, Fulton County Investigator Dale Weaver learned the Krusens moved to Virginia in 2004 or 2005. Clarence was indicted by the Missouri State Police and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) in 2004 for firearms violations and served eight years in federal prison.

Clarence Krusen was shot and killed in Laredo, Texas in 2012.

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LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas will temporarily suspend the administration of Johnson and Johnson

Continued on Page 11 STATE NEWS (cont.)

(J& J) COVID-19 vaccines, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced in his regular coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday at the State Capitol.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House both recommended that states pause rolling out the J& J vaccines after six American women, who range in age from 18-48, were diagnosed with blood clots in the two weeks following receiving the single-dose J& J vaccine.

Despite the news that the J& J vaccine is on pause for an indeterminate period of time (the governor said representatives from the White House told him the pause would last “days to weeks”), the governor still gave the J& J vaccine his vote of confidence, citing the fact only six cases of blood clots have been found out of the almost 7 million vaccine doses given out.

Further, the governor said the transparency the CDC and White House has displayed in temporarily pausing the administration of the J& J vaccine should give people confidence to receive other vaccines, but he noted that the pause needs to be evaluated quickly to ensure that public trust in the available coronavirus vaccines doesn’t

Despite concerns that pausing administration of the J& J vaccine would slow overall vaccine rollout in Arkansas, the governor said the state has the necessary inventory of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to cope with the temporary loss of J& J, citing the fact that the state had already received fewer doses of the J& J vaccine in recent weeks due to issues at the vaccine manufacturing plant in Baltimore.

Additionally, the 63,000 doses of the J& J vaccine Arkansas already has in its inventory is being safely stored to ensure no doses go to waste during the temporary pause and upcoming vaccine clinics which planned to use the J& J vaccine at locations around the state will pivot to offering Pfizer and Moderna twodose vaccines.

Secretary of Health Dr.

Jose Romero echoed the governor’s confidence in the J& J vaccine and other vaccines currently being offered, saying that the systems that were put in place to detect the very rare adverse reactions that the six women experienced worked.

“[America] has one of the safest vaccine programs in the world,” Romero said.

On the vaccine front, Arkansas has now given out 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, or about 70 percent of its consistently growing stockpile. To make up for the pause on J& J vaccines, the state will lean more into the 245,000 Pfizer doses and 178,000 Moderna doses it has on hand, the governor said. In response to critiques that the state has struggled to vaccinate large swaths of its population, the governor placed the onus on Arkansans to get vaccinated.

“We need [Arkansans] to get their vaccination,” the governor said. “We have the doses available to get into [the arms] of [Arkansans]. Please do not delay, get an appointment and get it done.”

On the case front, Arkansas noticed a slight uptick of 224 more cases of COVID19 on Tuesday after days of lower case numbers. Also, after three days of recording zero deaths, the death toll of COVID-19 in Arkansas increased by eight on Tuesday to 5,673.

Discussing the slight uptick in cases, the governor compared STATE NEWS (cont.)

Michigan, which is currently experiencing a second surge in new cases.

“We’re at a crossroads,” the governor said. “We can avoid that second peak by making sure we protect ourselves and get in on the race to the vaccine.”

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TRUMANN — A woman faces decades in state prison following a probe into her mother’s death.

Kimberly Coulter, 56, of Trumann, is accused of backing her SUV into Linda McDaniel, 73. When Trumann police responded on April 1 to Coulter’s home in the 200 block of East Speedway Street, McDaniel was “laying back in the driveway … (with a) puddle of blood expanding from her head,” according to the incident report.

“McDaniel was unconscious and had labored breathing,” Officer Curtis Cagle wrote. “Coulter stated that she was moving the vehicle in the drive … (and) she thought her mother, Ms. McDaniel was out of the way.”

Coulter failed several field sobriety tests on the scene and refused to submit a urine sample “because she had marijuana in her system and she knows that is illegal,” the incident report read. She was detained and cited in suspicion of driving while intoxicated on drugs, refusal to submit, driving on a suspended license and failing to appear.

The victim was transported to TPD and airlifted to Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where she later died, the department reported. Her body was then transported to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy.

The report suggests that Coulter was released from police custody before she was arrested the following day on a warrant for second- degree murder. A suspect commits the Class A felony if “with the purpose of causing serious injury to another person, the person causes the death of any person,” according to the Arkansas penal code.

“Coulter then began squatting down and yelling,” Officer Kary Amy wrote.

“She kept stating, ‘My mother is dead.’” Poinsett County District Court Judge Ron Hunter found probable cause Monday for the charge and set at $100,000 cash or surety bond, a hearing document states. The judge ordered that she not “possess or consume any intoxicants or controlled substances” if she’s released.

If convicted, Coulter faces six to 30 years in an Arkansas Department of Corrections facility.

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HARRISBURG — The missing man found dead in a ditch north of Weiner has been identified as Robert Karnes, authorities announced Tuesday.

Karnes, 47, of Cherry Valley, was reported missing in late March to the Cross County Sheriff’s Office. Wynne-based investigators learned that he was last seen at a Poinsett County residence, prompting Sheriff Kevin Molder’s office to investigate his disappearance.

Gerald Hutchens, 55, texted a photo to the victim’s girlfriend on March 27 of him passed out on his Hardin Lane floor.

“He said that Karnes was ‘(expletive) up’ when he got there,” Lt. Brad Felkins wrote. “At one point, Karnes passed out and Hutchens put him on the floor. … Karnes laid on the floor for what I estimate to be least 12 hours by Hutchens’ description.”

Authorities say Anthony Mosley, 45, and Buddy Cantrell, 30, both of Harrisburg, assisted in disposing Karnes’ body in a ditch, where it was found on April 8, documents show. His body was sent to the Arkansas Medical Examiner’s Office in Little Rock for “proper identification.”

The men are accused of abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. Cantrell also faces a charge of theft of property valued more than $1,000 but less than $5,000.

Hutchens and Mosley were released on $35,000 bonds while Cantrell was still jailed Tuesday in the Poinsett County Detention Center, records show. The sheriff’s office’s probe into the matter is ongoing, according to a Tuesday statement.

Craighead County Sheriff’s Office investigators are also probing the death of a Lake City man found in the St. Francis River.

Leslie Blagg, 57, was reported missing in mid-March and found by deputies equipped with boats. A preliminary report from the state examiner’s office noted that Blagg’s “cause of death is drowning,” Chief Deputy Justin Rolland reported.