A man who was on parole for a 1990s murder apparently killed his girlfriend overnight in Nashville, Ark., and then took his own life, officials say.
The bodies of Gracie Haddox, mid-40s, and her live-in boyfriend, Gerald Martin, late 40s, were discovered by Haddox's 16-year-old child, who found the pair dead in a bedroom at their home Friday, said Howard County Sheriff Brian McJunkins. He is calling the deaths a murder-suicide.
Haddox, a mother of seven, shared the house, at 310 Meadow Lane, with three of her children, one of her grandchildren and Martin, McJunkins said. One of the children, age 17, was scheduled to graduate Friday night from an area high school.
Martin, who is originally from Mineral Springs, Ark., had lived with Haddox for about two years.
In 1991, Martin was arrested in Texas in the killing of his girlfriend, said Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Chesshir of the 9th Judicial District in Arkansas. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1993 and paroled in 2013.
"The parole was transferred to Arkansas when he moved back," Chesshir said.
"There is something wrong with the system when someone is sentenced to life for murder and is let out early," he said.
Law enforcement officials did not disclose how Haddox died but said Martin was found hanging from a rope in a bedroom closet.
"We will let the crime lab determine how she died," McJunkins said.
The first call about the deaths came in about 7:35 a.m., he said.