A man whose wife has been missing for three weeks has found a female body in the woods off the same street as his residence Saturday.
Capt. Troy Elwell of the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office said Wendell Baughman contacted law enforcement officials about 12:30 p.m., indicating he had found the body on Double Springs Road, a road behind Redcliffe Elementary School between Beech Island and Jackson.
The decomposed body has not been identified, Elwell said. An autopsy could be performed as soon as today to make the identification and determine the cause of death.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Baughman told officials he had been working on a trailer and decided to go into the woods, where he found the body.
On April 23, Melody Baughman, 56, had been reported missing from the couple’s residence at 1082 Double Springs Road by her son, Kyle Posey of Lawton, Okla. He had attempted to reach her and then called law enforcement.
She had not taken her medication, money, credit cards or purse when she went missing, Elwell said at that time.
According to investigators, the couple had gotten into an argument while they were working on property near their home. Wendell said she left him there while he continued to work for several more hours. When he returned home, she wasn’t there, but he told investigators his .22 caliber gun was missing.
Wendell said at that time his wife had called him the afternoon she disappeared and told him she was a “grown woman and can leave anytime she wanted.” He told deputies he intended to wait 72 hours before he reported her missing.
Following the report of Melody’s disappearance, aerial and ground searches took place, but officials did not turn up any clues at that time.
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard’s education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.
