Four booked in Ethel woman’s death

CLINTON — East Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputies and State Police arrested four people Friday in the slaying of an Ethel woman, whose body was found earlier in the day outside a vacant house, Sheriff Talmadge Bunch said.

Bunch said the victim, Katherine Hartman, 58, of 8158 Highland Drive, was reported missing June 25 by her daughter, Lisa Keller, 34, of the same address.

Keller was one of the four arrested after an investigation by sheriff’s detectives and State Police.

A tip led deputies to Hartman’s body, wrapped in a sheet and plastic, in the yard of a vacant house at the end of Lane Road in Ethel, Detective Don McKey said.

Deputies booked Kendale Scott, 26, who also lived at the Highland Drive home, with second-degree murder in the slaying, McKey said.

An autopsy is planned Monday, but detectives believe Scott shot the woman June 24.

Scott is Keller’s boyfriend, and “basically he was tired of her (Hartman) being around,” McKey said.

Keller is accused of accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, along with Shederick Law, 24, of Baker, and Naomi Wheat, 20, who also lived with the victim, McKey said.

Wheat is a friend of Keller, and Law is a friend of Scott, McKey said.

The four were being held without bail Friday afternoon.

McKey said investigators began to receive information last week and Thursday that pointed to foul play in Hartman’s disappearance.

The vacant house where the body was found was once the home of Roosevelt Mack, 84, who vanished in January 2001. Despite extensive searches in the area off McCoy-Byrnes Road, Mack was never found.

Hunters found a skull in November 2007 in a wooded area off McCoy-Byrnes in November 2007, but deputies were unable to determine if it was that of Mack.

No other bones or evidence were found.