Lafayette County Sheriff's Office has confirmed the suspect in the March murder of a 63-year-old Bradley, Ark., woman is the same man who was shot dead about three hours later as he tried to break into a Miller County home.
Craig Allen Smith, 47, of Del City, Okla., was identified by Miller County Sheriff's Office two months ago as the man shot and killed March 5 while trying to break into a house on Miller County Road 9, just south of Fouke, Ark.
"Lafayette County Sheriff's Office was contacted by Arkansas State Police in reference to the DNA match that was confirmed by the Arkansas Crime Lab to be from that of Craig Allen Smith of Oklahoma," Sheriff Obie Sims said in Tuesday's press release.
Smith was fingered Tuesday as the person responsible for the death of Virginia Paulette Seeger-found dead at her home on Lafayette County Road 314 in the wee hours of March 5 by LCSO deputies as they responded to a 911 call from Seeger shortly before 5 a.m.
Seeger's car had been stolen from her home. Smith had wrecked his own vehicle before daylight the same morning.
"He was in the county that morning. He had wrecked his vehicle in our county, and we found it. He had left the vehicle," Chief Deputy James Barnes with LCSO said in a March 7 Gazette report.
About 8 a.m.-three hours after Seeger was found at her home-Miller County Sheriff's Office received a call about an attempted home invasion.
Trent Ames was sleeping at his mother's home near Fouke when he said he awoke to the sound of someone beating on the glass door of the house. Ames said he went outside to get his gun from his car when he saw an intruder-now found to be Smith.
According to earlier reports, Ames shot Smith, who died at the scene.
"At this time, the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office and Arkansas State Police consider this homicide solved," Sims said Tuesday.