Bodies of teen, woman found in SUV in Little Rock

Vehicle found in Little Rock trailer park

Little Rock police investigate a double homicide Monday morning after two women were found dead inside a vehicle parked next to a vacant mobile home at 11500 Chicot Road.
Little Rock police investigate a double homicide Monday morning after two women were found dead inside a vehicle parked next to a vacant mobile home at 11500 Chicot Road.

Little Rock police were investigating a double homicide Monday after a woman and a 15-year-old girl were found dead inside a sport utility vehicle parked by a mobile home in southwest Little Rock, authorities said.

Officers were called around 8:20 a.m. to a mobile home on Lot 50 of 11500 Chicot Road after a 911 caller told police there was a woman inside a vehicle "covered in blood," Lt. Dana Jackson said at the scene.

When police arrived, they found two people dead inside a blue Ford Explorer parked near the back of the home, Jackson said. The four doors of the Explorer were ajar Monday morning, and the back driver-side door was stained with blood. Crime scene officials ducked in and out to inspect the vehicle.

Click here for larger versions
Photos by Emma Pettit

Lt. Steve McClanahan, a Police Department spokesman, said Monday afternoon that one of the two homicide victims was a 15-year-old girl.

Jackson was unable to give additional information on the identity of the victims or say how the victims died.

The 911 caller was an employee of the mobile home park, which stretches across a web of residential streets off Chicot Road in southwest Little Rock.

[HOMICIDE MAP: Interactive map shows killings so far this year in Little Rock, North Little Rock]

The white trailer next to where the women were found had a "For Sale" sign in the window. Jackson said police spoke with the property owner, who informed authorities that the residence is supposed to be vacant.

Jackson could not say when the Explorer arrived at the home. Further details, including the causes of death, weren't immediately known.

The woman and the 15-year-old girl found Monday are the 24th and 25th homicides so far this year in Little Rock. During the same period last year, the city had logged 11 homicides.

Violent crime overall is also up in Little Rock.

Preliminary department data show 1,218 violent crimes from Jan. 1 to May 8, a 21 percent increase compared with the same time last year.

Officials have said that an uptick in violent crime that began last fall has continued into 2017, drawing concerns from police officials and city leaders.

At the crime scene Monday, a man who lives next door to the mobile home where the SUV was found said he has started sitting on a metal folding chair at the corner of his driveway to watch the neighborhood some nights. The man, who declined to be named, said he's seen the blue SUV parked up the driveway since at least Sunday night and assumed someone had moved in.

Neighbors milled around the crime scene tape that blocked off a stretch of road outside the homes and took photos and videos while children sat on steps. A neighbor who said she has lived at the mobile home park for almost two years said she's never seen anyone inside the vacant mobile home.

Jackson cautioned reporters that all of the information is preliminary and subject to change. He said police have to be careful to not reveal too many details too quickly, especially because authorities were just called to the scene two hours before.

"That's shocking information: two dead women in a vehicle. So we're throwing all our resources at it right now," Jackson said.

Jackson said the mobile home park was also the site of a recent suicide. Police did not say Monday whether the suicide and the two homicides were related.

The Saline County sheriff's office was also investigating another homicide in the area Monday, said agency spokesman Lt. Jeffrey Silk.

The agency was investigating after a person was found shot Saturday in the driveway of a residence in the 7000 block of Myrtle Lane, which is off Royal Oaks Drive in Mabelvale, he said. Silk said Monday afternoon that authorities had identified the homicide victim.

Metro on 05/16/2017

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Upcoming Events