Woman Admits Abandoning Arkansas Man’s Corpse in Missouri

A 50-year-old Neosho woman who pleaded guilty to abandoning the corpse of an Arkansas man was given a four-year suspended sentence.

Christy Garcia pleaded guilty Wednesday to abandonment of a corpse and was put on five years of supervised probation.

Prosecutors say Garcia didn’t notify authorities that Richard Sawyer, of Bentonville, Arkansas, died in August 2017. Investigators say Sawyer was a passenger in a vehicle Garcia was driving when he swallowed methamphetamine after the car was stopped in Arkansas.

The Joplin Globe reports after the traffic stop, Garcia drove to the home of Dorena Epperson, of Goodman, before she realized Epperson was dead. She and Epperson then allegedly dumped Sawyer’s body near Rocky Comfort.

A family member found his remains more than a year later.

Epperson is charged with abandonment of a corpse.