Update: Ex-boyfriend nabbed in Amy Latus case
Kris Baker
with her friend going missing then the body found
partially buried about a week later:
--------------
Ex of slain woman nabbed in Arkansas
By Jamie Satterfield, News-Sentinel staff writer
July 28, 2002
The ex-boyfriend of a Knoxville woman found slain
Monday is behind bars in Arkansas after Knox
County Sheriff's Department deputies embarked
on a pursuit of the bus in which they say the
wanted man was fleeing to Montana.
Ronald Ball, 40, who is suspected by authorities in
the death of ex-girlfriend Amy Latus, was taken into
custody Saturday in Lawrence County, Ark., after
the sheriff there agreed to stop the bus deputies
were desperately trying to catch up to, Sheriff
Tim Hutchison said.
Ball is being held in the Lawrence County Jail on
a violation of probation charge obtained by the
Sheriff's Department Tuesday. Ball left another
jail in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after his new girlfriend's
family posted his bond late Monday on a traffic
offense.
Hutchison said authorities will seek to extradite
Ball back to Knox County as soon as possible.
Ball is a suspect in the strangulation death of Latus,
37, a Kimberly-Clark employee reported missing
July 3. Her body was found Monday in North Knox
County near Ball's home and had been covered
with rocks and dirt, Hutchison said.
According to the sheriff, Ball had been dating Latus
and his current girlfriend at the same time. Latus
had loaned Ball money and obtained financing for
his truck, so he remained financially beholden
to Latus while starting a new relationship, the sheriff
has said. Authorities have speculated that Ball killed
her to disentangle himself from the relationship
while avoiding any financial repercussions.
When Latus' body was discovered, Ball was in
Tuscaloosa with his new girlfriend. Hutchison sent
two of his detectives to Alabama and notified
Tuscaloosa authorities to try to find Ball.
When Tuscaloosa authorities tried to arrest Ball,
he allegedly fled. He was arrested after a short
chase, the sheriff said.
Hutchison said he tried to get a murder warrant
against Ball, but Knox County District Attorney
General Randy Nichols refused, instead authorizing
the misdemeanor probation violation charge on a
prior drunk driving conviction.
Nichols has said the violation charge was sufficient
to get Ball extradited, while Hutchison has countered
that any officer approaching Ball would be unaware
he is a murder suspect and instead would treat him
as a minor - and less threatening - offender.
Before Ball could be served with the violation warrant,
Hutchison said, his current girlfriend's family posted
Ball's bail. Since then, Hutchison said, Ball had been
"hopping around from little city to little city" in Alabama.
By Saturday morning, deputies had tracked Ball to a
motel in a small Alabama town, Hutchison said. When
they arrived, they learned that Ball had boarded a bus
en route to Montana, he said.
Using route information provided by the bus company,
deputies headed in the same direction, making
desperate phone calls to police agencies in different
towns where the bus was scheduled to make a stop
or pass through, Hutchison said.
Their phone calls paid off when the Lawrence County
Sheriff's Department saw the bus and pulled it over,
he said.
JC
"Kris Baker" <kris....@prodigyy.net> wrote in message
news:Bn119.4688$B62.60...@newssvr17.news.prodigy.com...
Sounds like LE weren't all seeing eye to eye. Glad they got the guy in any
case. All that running sure makes it sound like Marianna's suspicions about
the bf's guilt are absolutely correct.
JC
Kris Baker
JC wrote in message <3d44a8ee$0$16942$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au>...
Absolutely!
I *loved* the way that news story was written --
it pointed fingers all over the place (something we
seldom see). It may not be correct journalism,
but I wish that kind of attitude was in use here
in SLC on the Smart case.
Kris
JC
> >Sounds like LE weren't all seeing eye to eye. Glad they
> >got the guy in any case. All that running sure makes it
> >sound like Marianna's suspicions about the bf's guilt
> >are absolutely correct.
> >JC
>
>
> Absolutely!
>
> I *loved* the way that news story was written --
> it pointed fingers all over the place (something we
> seldom see). It may not be correct journalism,
> but I wish that kind of attitude was in use here
> in SLC on the Smart case.
>
> Kris
I think sometimes the fingerpointing is kept within the ranks of LE, so
reporters don't see much (or LE members don't usually go on the record
maybe). I think it might as well be out there for all of us to see. I got
frustrated with the Smart case and stopped following it. Just couldn't make
heads nor tails of the investigation.
JC