Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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August 27, 2009

Wanted Mercer woman believed dead in Arkansas

By GREG JORDAN

SHELL LAKE, Ark. — The sheriff of an Arkansas county said Thursday that investigators believe a body found outside a truck stop is that of a Mercer County woman who failed to appear Aug. 18 for her trial on a charge of first-degree murder.

The St. Francis County Sheriff’s Department was notified Wednesday evening about a woman lying in a 1999 Subaru parked outside the TA Truck Stop at Shell Lake, a location off Interstate 40, a highway which goes through the middle of the county, said Sheriff Bobby May.

Photo identification and other ID found with the vehicle indicated that the woman was Cathy D. Graham, 51, of Lashmeet.

“Our criminal investigator, Sgt. Glen Ramsey, ran a check through NCIC to see who she may have been,” May said. “It came back that she was wanted out of West Virginia for first-degree murder.”

The body had been sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for autopsy.

“We’re 99 percent sure that it is her,” May said. “She was in her 1999 Subaru...she had all of her identification with her including her photo identification. To be 100 percent sure, we’re going to have to match her fingerprints.”

The Mercer County Sheriff’s Department sent copies of Graham’s fingerprint records to Arkansas, said Sheriff Don Meadows. Meadows declined to comment before an identification was made.

The body was found lying on the passenger side of the Subaru’s back seat with her feet hanging out an open window, May said. People walking past the vehicle noticed the woman, could not tell if she was sleeping, and notified authorities.

Investigators had not determined how long the Subaru had been at the truck stop, but said the person’s death had been “very recent” when she was discovered, May said. There was no trauma to the body, but her elbow was skinned, possibly from a fall, May said. It was also learned that she had been a heart patient and had been taking medication.

“We didn’t find any type of medication on her,” May said.

Judge Derek Swope issued a bench warrant Aug. 18 when Graham failed to appear for her trial in Mercer County Circuit Court. Later that day the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department entered Graham’s information in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.

Graham was arrested in May 2008 in connection with the death of Curtis Yates, 74, of Young’s Mobile Home Park in Lake Bottom. She had been his caregiver.

The Mercer County Grand Jury indicted Graham last February on a charge of first-degree murder. She was freed in May 2008 on a $25,000 surety bond and was still on that bond when she did not appear as scheduled Aug. 18.

Public Defender John H. McGinnis IV said on the day Graham disappeared that she had been cooperative and had not missed any appointments with her counselors or any of her court hearings.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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