A boyfriend has been charged with capital murder in the slashing death of a 27-year-old Greenwood woman.
Ben Meeks III, 46, 612 State St., was arrested Tuesday evening as he attempted to hide from police under a bed in a room at the Regency Inn on U.S. 82.
Greenwood Assistant Police Chief Marvin Hammond Sr. said Meeks had confessed to killing his girlfriend, Reshunda Moore, 27, who was found dead inside a home at 612 State St. with her throat slashed late Tuesday morning.
Hammond said the killing apparently came after a heated argument between the two over money. He said Moore ahad just received her income tax refund and Meeks wanted some of the cash. Money had been taken from the scene.
Meeks remained in the Leflore County Jail this morning. Bail had not been set.
Relatives found Moore’s body late Tuesday morning inside the home, where she had been living with Meeks, as an infant child cried nearby.
A number of Moore’s friends and relatives gathered just outside the home, which had been cordoned off by police with yellow crime-scene tape. They recalled Moore as a loving mother of three boys who enjoyed walking her oldest children to school each day.
The children will now be left orphaned after the slaying of their mother, said Latoya Moore, one of Moore’s sisters. The children’s father was killed in an accident several years ago, Moore said.
“She’s leaving her three kids,” said Martha Adams, the victim’s aunt. “They’re going to grow up alone.”
“Please pray for us,” Adams added.
Moore’s relatives described an often physically abusive relationship between Moore and Meeks. Adams said the man had given her black eyes and injuries that required hospital trips during previous disputes. She said relatives had tried to warn Moore to leave Meeks.
Kimberly Terry, one of Reshunda’s sisters, said that Tuesday was her birthday and that the entire family had been planning on getting together to throw a party. Instead, they gathered close together to comfort each other in the street as Moore’s body was taken from the home.
As news spread about Moore’s death and the hunt for Meeks Tuesday afternoon, the situation raised tensions across the city.
The Greenwood School District placed its schools on “lockdown” Tuesday after receiving word from police that a murder suspect was at large. Margaret Dean, director of communications for the district, said that entrances to the schools were secured and access to campus was tightened “out of an abundance of caution.”
Shandra Watkins, a South Greenwood resident who lives just a few blocks from the site of the slaying, said neighbors had been watching children closely and nervously waiting for news updates after hearing reports that the killer was on the loose.
“People have been worried all day,” Watkins said.
Watkins said she was particularly alarmed after the evening news reported on the hunt for Meeks but didn’t broadcast a picture of the man Greenwood police were then calling a person of interest in the slaying.
Moore’s slaying is the first homicide in Greenwood since 29-year-old Lakeyla Foreman Broom was stabbed to death in her North Greenwood home in September. Broom’s killing remains unsolved.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
