When Shauna Terry and Damien Bell left their Dothan, Alabama motel room on July 8, 2022, they seemed to vanish into thin air; yet investigators believe they were kidnapped, then murdered days later, a Dothan Police Department (DPD) statement said last year.
A tip finally came in on July 28 which hinted at the couple’s fate, leading investigators to a property on Long Round Bay Road in Bonifay, FL, the statement says. Armed with a search warrant, investigators searched the property on July 29. Human remains were discovered on the property, and later identified by a medical examiner as Terry and Bell.
Police believe one of the victims was shot in Holmes County, Florida, while the other was killed in Bonifay at the Long Bay Road property, the statement says.
The DPD has since arrested four people in connection with the murders, and three for hindering prosecution, WDHN reports. On April 26, 2023, U.S. Marshals announced that they arrested the fifth suspect, MacAuthur Mike Hawkins, who has been in the wind since the deaths.
Hawkins has been charged with murder, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse, WDHN reports. He was living in Decatur, Georgia, under a false name. He’ll be held in Georgia without bond to await extradition to the Houston County Jail to face the charges.
Sheena Marie Thurman, a 35-year-old woman from Bonifay, was the first to be arrested at the end of July, 2022, the statement says. She has been charged with one count of murder in Dothan, and one count of open murder in Bonifay, the DPD statement says.
WDHN reported that Thurman was indicted on Feb. 28, 2023 and will face trial for the murder charges.
David Allen Bastian, 37, of Port Saint Lucie, was arrested on August 4, 2022 and charged with one count of capital murder, one count of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of abuse of a corpse, WDHN reported previously.
The third suspected arrested was Joshua Deavours Parks, 36, of Dothan, on August 7. He has been charged with capital murder-kidnapping, corpse abuse, and first-degree kidnapping, WDHN says.
In late September, police arrested Quantashia Johnson, 27, of Dothan, and Cathleen Harvis, 26, of Enterprise, and charged them with hindering prosecution in the first degree, WDHN says. Police accuse them of providing housing and vehicles to other suspects in the case, MacAuther Hawkins and DeVante Laquae Williams.
Police found and arrested 32-year-old Williams on October 4, charging her with capital murder, kidnapping in the first degree, and abuse of a corpse, WDHN says. Another woman, 33-year-old Cherral Willis, was arrested alongside Williams, accused of helping Williams evade capture, and has been charged with hindering prosecution in the first degree.
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