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Sunday, Aug. 02, 2009

Lee Co. couple charged in two deaths

The remains of a woman found dead in Lee County Wednesday have been identified, and her son and his girlfriend have been charged with murdering her and another of her sons, whose body was found Friday in a freezer.

Leonard D. Henry, 27, and his girlfriend, Opal M. Ashcraft, 21, were arrested Friday and charged with the murders of Katherine B. Henry, 66, and Paul E. Richardson, 41. All lived together at 220 Evergreen Drive in Irvine, said Kentucky State Police Sgt. Matt Feltner.

Katherine Henry's body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in a shed off Ky. 587 in Lee County on Wednesday.

The body was not identified at the time and was sent to the State Medical Examiner's office for an autopsy.

On Thursday, state police said they received a report from Estill County that Henry was missing, and on Friday, the medical examiner's office confirmed that she was the woman whose body had been found.

When state police searched Henry's home Friday night, they said they found Richardson's remains in a freezer. He apparently died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Katherine Henry also had been shot once in the head, said Wolfe County Coroner J. Frank Porter, who worked at the Lee County scene where her body was found.

He said the body was in a remote area and was found by "chance." Porter said someone who lived nearby and who once tended crops on the property was driving in the area and got out of his vehicle to look around. When he peeked in the shed, he saw a woman's feet sticking out of a sleeping bag inside.

He said Henry had probably been dead for several days by then.

Henry and Richardson may have been killed Sunday, Feltner said. He said he did not know what the motive might have been.

Leonard Henry and Opal Ashcraft were arrested on Evergreen Drive Friday and taken to the Estill County Jail. Each has been charged with two counts of murder.

Sammy McIntosh, who has lived down the street from the family for many years, said Richardson and Leonard Henry were half-brothers.

He said Katherine Henry also had two daughters and two other sons.

She did not drive, but she walked a lot and often stopped to talk as she passed by, McIntosh said.

"She was a good woman," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better neighbor."

He said Leonard Henry stopped staying in the home after Monday.

He said Henry stopped by his house Tuesday and asked if McIntosh had seen or heard from his mother.

"He went in and said, 'There ain't nobody there,'" McIntosh recalled. "He was putting on a good show."