KSP: Shelbiana woman murdered by boyfriend in Menifee County
Appalachian News-Express
The search for a missing Pike County woman has ended in tragedy, after police said her boyfriend, a Menifee County man, was arrested in South Carolina and told police he murdered her and a body, believed to be that of the woman, was found at his residence.
Last week, Kentucky State Police Post 8 in Morehead notified the public of the search for a missing woman from Shelbiana, Jodi Stapleton, 35, who was last seen in Wellington.
The police and Stapleton’s family began efforts to notify the public of the search for Stapleton, but on April 1, according to documents provided to the News-Express by FOX Carolina, an arrest in South Carolina led police to charge her boyfriend with murder.
According to a statement from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, on April 1, deputies responded to a call reporting an abandoned vehicle in the community of Chesnee, South Carolina. The statement said deputies made contact with the driver of the vehicle, Anthony Daryl Hall, 35, of Wellington.
“Early in their questioning of Hall, he voluntarily told them he had murdered his girlfriend in Kentucky,” the statement said.
According to court documents, the Spartanburg Sheriff’s Office contacted KSP and Det. Megan Bennett conducted an interview with Hall, who admitted to killing Stapleton at his residence on March 27. He also told investigators, court documents said, that he burned her vehicle in Morgan County.
According to the warrant, investigators went to Hall’s residence and located the remains of a female later positively identified as Stapleton.
Hall and Stapleton, the warrant said, were in an “on-again-off-again” relationship.
Hall was lodged in jail in Spartanburg and was scheduled, according to the sheriff’s office statement, to appear in court for a formal bond hearing April 2.
