a beloved pastor's wife turns up dead in
the freezer for years he's been telling
people she died in child birth take a
listen an individual by the name of
Anthony Hopkins was arrested detained in
Jackson
Alabama um we believe that the body to
be that of a black female 36 years of
age of arletha Hopkins we're treating
this as a homicide at this point all we
know is that we had a body in a
freezer incredible out to Robert
McLendon with the Press Register there
in Mobile what
happened um well we just uh recently got
um some more facts in the case they
released a court document the affidavit
that led to the search warrant that led
to the police finding that um that body
in the freezer um apparently a a female
relative uh had been being raped by this
pastor since she was 11 years old
according to the document and
um the uh the AR Letha um Hopkins the
wife um caught him in the ACT uh in the
bathroom in
2004 and they had an argument after
which um he presumably killed her the
according to the coure document uh he
the next morning asked her to help him
hied um her body in the freezer that was
in 2004 so apparently the mother's been
in there since
2004 you know this is an incredible
story and uh there is a family of
several children joining me right now is
a very special guest it is Chief Philip
M Garrett with the Mobile Alabama Police
Department chief thank you for being
with us how many children are in this
family uh we believe there's eight
children H and all this time they've
been living in the home with the mom in
the freezer and it appears that way for
3 and 1/2 to maybe 4
years Chief have you ever seen anything
like it uh I've seen some things were
close to it but I think the totality of
this situation is more than I've ever
seen to have the mom in the freezer how
were you alerted why would you go just
look at somebody's freezer well one of
the uh family members came forward on
Monday afternoon noon and and told us
that uh there were some things going on
the home and in fact that the the mother
and the wife were uh she was in the
freezer you know Dr uh Joshua perper is
with us everyone chief medical examiner
joining us out of Miami Miami Dr perper
it's my understanding they are saying
they cannot determine cause of death if
she has been in the freezer many people
believe that that completely uh protects
the body and preserves it why can't you
get a cause of death well there would
have to defrost the body and after the
body is defrosted they will have to work
very fast because afterward the
composition changes set in very very
rapidly so yes in my opinion after that
they would be able to see what was the
apparent cause of death whether there
was strangulation or blun force troma or
stabbing or any other cause of death
when you have got a body that has been
frozen Dr perper do you have to work
even faster at determining cood once it
is thawed well yes because once the body
gets defrosted after a long period of
freezing the postmortem changes of
deterioration take place very very fast
so you don't want to be faced with
artifacts which might be thought to be
injuries when in fact they are not doc
uh Chief Garrett at this juncture what
is he charged with uh he was booked on
murder yesterday morning early we have
since followed up with uh rape incest
sexual abuse I believe and maybe a ofy
with us Chief Philip Garrett with the
Mobile Police Department