HOT SPRINGS — Police said Wednesday that an argument over stolen property agitated a Hot Springs man to the point that he killed three friends before asking another to help him dispose of the bodies.
An affidavit said Nicholas Lewondowski had gone to James Coble's house with three friends Monday night. While there, the four guests argued about someone in the group stealing property from someone else in the group, the document said.
"Lewondowski got agitated with all three of his friends" and they left to go to the home of someone believed to be one of the victims, detective Mark Fallis wrote. "When Lewondowski returned to Coble's residence the next day ... he told Coble that he had killed the three people."
Coble said he helped Lewondowski move vehicles from near the crime scene and that the suspect nailed a door shut.
"Lewondowski then told Coble that he would probably need help disposing of the bodies, later, and would contact Coble in the next day to do so," Fallis wrote. "Lewondowski stated that they would probably just burn the residence down."
Coble called police, who found the home's back door open. They found three bodies in pools of blood. The names of the victims were not released pending notification of relatives.
Lewondowski was being held on three capital murder complaints, and no bail had been set.
The deaths were the first of two triple homicides reported in Arkansas in a 24-hour period Monday and Tuesday. Three members of a family were found dead at a Little Rock apartment Tuesday afternoon.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
— The Associated Press
EARLIER:
Authorities have made an arrest in the killings of three people whose bodies were discovered early Tuesday evening at a Hot Springs home.
Hot Springs Police Department spokesman Cpl. Kirk Zaner said in a statement that Nicolas Lewondowski, 34, of Hot Springs was arrested shortly before 7 a.m. at a home on Little Mazarn Road. He faces three counts of capital murder.
Officers were dispatched around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to conduct a "welfare check" at 208 Nevada Street, a single-story home in a residential area just north of Oaklawn Racing and Gaming.
Investigators arrived and found three people dead. The agency did not release any information about their identities, including age or gender, or how officers believe any of them were killed. The deaths were investigated as homicides, and the bodies were sent to the state Crime Lab for autopsies.
Police said officers identified Lewondowski as a suspect after speaking to witnesses. No details on a suspected motive have been released.
— Gavin Lesnick