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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on a Joplin, Missouri, woman whose husband’s body was found in a freezer (all times local):
2:50 p.m.
A southwest Missouri woman has been arrested two days after her husband’s body was found in a freezer at their home.
Police say 67-year-old Barbara Watters was arrested without incident Thursday at a house in Joplin.
Spokesman Capt. Nick Jimenez told The Joplin Globe that Watters was standing in the yard of the home when police arrested her with help from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The arrest ended a search that began Tuesday when officers found the body of Paul Barton in a freezer in the bedroom of the couple’s home.
Watters is was wanted on a warrant charging her with abandonment of a corpse.
A probable cause affidavit says a witness told police that Barton died in December 2018.
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9:50 a.m.
Authorities are searching for a woman after finding the corpse of a man in a freezer inside her southwest Missouri home.
Sixty-seven-year-old Barbara Watters, of Joplin, was charged Wednesday with abandonment of a corpse. Police said in a Facebook post that the man whose body was found Tuesday hasn’t been identified. Police located the body after learning Monday during an unrelated arson investigation that a body might be inside her home and obtaining a search warrant.
Police Chief Matt Stewart told The Joplin Globe that there were no obvious signs of foul play. An autopsy is needed to determine how the man died. Police haven’t indicated how long the body may have been in the freezer.
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