Body Of Missing Woman Who Was Kidnapped And Tortured Found Weighted Down In Pond, 3 Arrested

An Arkansas mother who was reported missing last month was kidnapped and tortured in an empty mobile home before her body was weighted down in a pond, authorities said. Police have arrested three suspects in connection with the kidnapping and murder.

The suspects identified as Alex Nathaniel Davis, 30, Austin Johnson, 23, and Kaelin Hutchinson, 24, were arrested after the body of 40-year-old Tara Strozier was found in a pond near Rock Island, in LeFlore County last week, according to a news release by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Strozier, a mother of three, was reported missing from Fort Smith in Arkansas on July 19. An investigation was launched on July 26 after Strozier’s Volkswagen Jetta was found abandoned in a private drive in Cameron, Oklahoma, without any sign of her.

After a joint investigation from the LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Strozier's body was discovered on July 29.

The investigators believe that Strozier was tortured at an unoccupied mobile home in Cameron before being murdered by the pond near Rock Island. "After she was killed by the pond, they weighed her body down and threw her into the pond," the news release said.

When Davis was taken into custody, he reportedly admitted to killing Strozier while Johnson was with him during the killing. Davis and Johnson were charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping, while Hutchinson was charged with obstruction of an officer. All three suspects were booked into the LeFlore County Detention Center, 7 News Boston reported.

Investigators have not revealed if Strozier knew the suspects or details of the motive behind the murder.

A 17-year-old boy from Philadelphia was reportedly kidnapped from his home overnight and tortured last month. Police arrested three people after the teen's parents reported him missing. The parents said they heard a loud noise from the basement of their home and when they went to check on him, the boy was missing. Police rescued the boy from a home, about a mile away from where he went missing. The boy sustained serious injuries to his face, feet, and head.