KTHV is reporting an arrest in the deaths of a father and his child whose burned bodies were found in a pickup in southern Pulaski County. We’ll have more shortly.
A report just faxed over from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office says that Robert Todd Gatrell has been arrested on two counts of capital murder and one count of arson in the deaths of Michael Palmer and his two year old daughter Hannah Grace Dowdie. Palmer had only been awarded custody of his daughter the day before their bodies were found burning in a GMC pickup registered to Palmer on December 21. The girl had been removed from the custody of her mother, Kayla Dowdie, almost a year earlier. Kayla Dowdie was later convicted of burning her infant daughter with a cigarette lighter.
Sheriff’s office spokesman John Rehrauer said that Gatrell will make his first court appearance tomorrow, and added that the officers plan on making one or two more arrests in the case down the road.