A missing man's Facebook records led police to a suspect in the Boone County jail.
Shay Corbett Butler, 22, told police Monday that he shot Jeremy Scroggins, 28, during a robbery attempt in June, according to a news release from the Boone County sheriff's office. Both men were from Harrison.
Butler told police Scroggins' body was in woods near Denning Cemetery, which is 3 miles northwest of Harrison, said Capt. Bob King of the sheriff's office. Police found human remains there late Monday, King said. They will send them to the state Crime Laboratory for positive identification.
Butler was arrested on preliminary charges of capital murder, aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was already in jail on burglary and drug charges, King said.
Scroggins had been reported missing on June 27.
King said he sent Facebook a search warrant Sept. 8 and received the records Sept. 29. They indicated that Butler and Scroggins had sent each other messages through Facebook.
"We knew that Jeremy has social media accounts and utilized his cellphone to communicate with his friends," King said. "It wasn't until we received the Facebook response that it started to narrow down the person we needed to look at. Then we were able to get a confession.
"Once we were able to get our hands on these records, we were able to make that connection and break the case."
Morgan Michelle Vaughan, 25, of Jasper was arrested on a preliminary charge of aggravated robbery in the case. She was booked into the Boone County jail in Harrison at 4:28 a.m. Wednesday and released at 1:47 p.m. the same day after posting $100,000 bond, said Boone County Sheriff Mike Moore.
Butler and Vaughan picked up Scroggins and took him to a rural area in Boone County where the two planned to rob him, according to a news release sent Wednesday from the sheriff's office.
"It got out of hand, and he shot him," Moore said.
The three-month investigation was conducted by the sheriff's office and the Arkansas State Police.
Metro on 10/06/2016