Pinal County Sheriffs office(ELOY, Ariz.) — Arizona police arrested an Oklahoma man this week after discovering his wife’s naked dead body in his vehicle.
Rodney Puckett, 70, was arrested during a traffic stop in Eloy, Arizona, on Monday when an officer discovered his 74-year-old wife, Linda Puckett, dead in the passenger seat of his SUV, Eloy police said.
Rodney Puckett was reportedly wearing only a pair of underwear and his wife was laying upside down with her head on the floorboard and her legs on the headrest.
Rodney Puckett told police his wife had died in Texas while they were making their way to California on a road trip. The woman’s death is being investigated as suspicious, but it’s unclear if Rodney Puckett may have played a role, according to police.
“Rodney told detectives Linda died at a hotel in Texas during their trip. He moved her body into their vehicle, continuing towards their destination,” the Eloy Police Department said in a statement. “Linda was turned over to Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office who will be working to determine her cause of death.”
The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC affiliate KNXV-TV that the woman’s body had some signs of blunt force trauma, but it had not determined her exact cause of death as of Tuesday evening.
The couple, who married in 2011, were in the process of divorcing, court records show. Linda Puckett was issued a protective order from her husband on Feb. 6 and it was continued Monday, records show. She filed for divorce earlier this year.
Authorities said they became aware of the case when a fast food worker told police that she saw a naked man and woman in a vehicle, according to KNXV.
“I so happened to look on the passenger side and that’s when I seen he had the lady in there, she was like completely naked,” Maria Davis, the fast food worker who reported the incident, told KNXV. “The way she was face down, like laying down, and then I seen the color of her feet were like purple.”
“He was like normal, like really normal about it,” Davis added. “He was calm, he ordered his food.”
Rodney Puckett was booked into Pinal County Jail on charges of abandonment or concealment of a body.
He was being held on a $100,000 bond as of Tuesday evening. It’s unclear if he has obtained an attorney.
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