Footage from a 5NEWS story in March of 2001 shows Vines being sentenced to life in prison. To learn more about the case, watch “Snapped Notorious: The River Valley Killer,” streaming now on Oxygen."The one woman who survived, she had been knocked unconscious immediately, so it was felt like the perpetrator thought that she was dead and Juanita Wofford was just brutally stabbed to death," former prosecutor Ron Fields said.įields served as prosecutor of Sebastian and Crawford counties from 1978-1995. Vines was convicted and sentenced to three life terms without the possibility of parole.
Vines, a divorced dad, had a reputation as a nice guy and had known some of his victims. The teen’s father arrived home during the attack and beat and subdued the attacker, 36-year-old Charles Ray Vines, who was a friend of the family.Īuthorities connected Vines, whose parents had run a mortuary, to the rape of Jones and the murders of Wofford and Henderson. In March 2000, police responded to a 911 call from a Crawford County 16-year-old girl who had been stabbed repeatedly and raped in her home. “So many stab wounds you could just stand there and count them."īennett was released, and detectives doggedly resumed their search for the River Valley Killer. “It was a vicious, vicious attack,” Rider told producers. Ruth Henderson, 74, was brutally assaulted and killed. On August 10, 1995, while Bennett was behind bars, there was an attack on a local woman. After clearing a number of possible persons of interest, a local resident, Danny Bennett, who originally denied guilt, but later confessed to the crimes, was taken into custody and charged with Wofford’s murder. Investigators worked the case, collecting DNA evidence and witness statements. At the crime scene, detectives found evidence that someone had urinated near the body. “From her state of undress it was quite apparent that she had been raped.”Īnalysis of Wofford’s body revealed that she had been sexually assaulted after she was dead. Rider, Former Captain, Fort Smith Police Department. “Apparently she had been there for a day or two,” said Jay C. It smells.’”Īuthorities arrived at the “horrific” crime scene, where Wofford was found dead with stab wounds.
“They said, ‘There’s something extremely wrong. And so I sent two men to go over and check on her,” a Fort Smith resident told producers. “Juanita was extremely faithful to the church.
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