EL DORADO -- An arrest has been made in the death of an El Dorado woman, Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts announced Friday.
Jay Reginald Moody, 29, of El Dorado was arrested Friday and is being held at the Union County Detention Center on two counts of capital murder related to the death of Marchella Modica-Champion. Moody's first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday.
Modica-Champion, 22, was found dead Jan. 28 in an area near Wesson Road. Capt. Jeff Stinson, chief investigator for the Union County sheriff, said the office had received an alert on "what appeared to be a body in a ditch" at 250 Old Mill Road.
Stinson said deputies found Modica-Champion lying face down with two gunshot wounds. She was found to have been nine months pregnant at the time of her death.
Deputies found what they believe to be the location where Modica-Champion was shot -- a wooded area behind an abandoned home about 250 yards away from where her body was found.
"One of the most important people in our ability to solve her murder was Marchella herself," Stinson said. "Evidence suggests that at some point after she was shot, she stood up and walked out to where she was found before succumbing to her injuries.
"The location where Marchella was shot was so isolated that if she had not been so determined to live, so determined to find help for her and her unborn child, it would have taken weeks if not months to locate her," Stinson said. "This would have significantly limited the amount of evidence we recovered, due to the time that would have passed."
Stinson said using witness testimony, physical evidence and digital evidence, investigators pieced together Moody and Modica-Champion's travels from the evening of Jan. 27, when she was killed, and linked Moody to her death.
Modica-Champion was due to deliver her child Friday, and Moody is charged with two counts of capital murder.
Stinson said the investigation remains open and evidence is under examination at the state Crime Laboratory. He said the sheriff's office is confident in its arrest of Moody and doesn't anticipate additional arrests.
"If more evidence develops as we go that leads us to any other persons of interest, we're certainly going to be looking into that as well," Stinson said.
Along with the sheriff's office, officers from the El Dorado police SWAT team, the Drug Task Force and Criminal Apprehension Division, the Arkansas State Police and community members assisted in identifying Moody as a suspect.
"To me, it's significant that we made the arrest on ... [the] due date," Roberts said. "Just going back and seeing her on the side of the road in the ditch and to get to where we are now, we're excited, because we found justice for her."
The case will be turned over to prosecutors with the 13th Judicial Circuit, who will determine the formal charges.
"This case is not over. The arrest has been made. We feel confident we got the right person," Roberts said Friday. "To give her family a little bit of closure today, when they should be celebrating their grandson, when they should be celebrating their nephew, we're glad to be able to at least give them this."
State Desk on 02/17/2020