RICHMOND, Texas – A search resumed Tuesday for body parts and evidence in connection with a dismembered body found in a Fort Bend County creek. The victim was positively identified as a 27-year-old woman who was killed in North Carolina.
The remains were found in Oyster Creek in the 4300 block of Skinner Lane in Richmond Sunday afternoon.
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North Carolina officials said the remains belong to Laura Jean Ackerson, of Kinston, N.C. A co-worker reported her missing last week when Ackerson failed to pick up her two small children at her ex-boyfriend's house after work.
Deputies said Ackerson was killed in North Carolina and that the body was cut into at least seven parts with a saw. The body parts were then placed in an ice chest and driven 21 hours across several states and dumped into Oyster Creek, investigators said.
Dive teams are using cadaver dogs to try to locate body parts that investigators believe are still in the water. Nothing was found on Tuesday, officials said.
Ackerson and her ex, Grant Ruffin Hayes, 32, were in a heated custody dispute over their two children.
Hayes and his wife, Amanda Perry Hayes, 39, were arrested in North Carolina at 1 a.m. Monday and charged with murder in Ackerson's death. Both made a court appearance in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday afternoon and are being held without bond. The Wake County district attorney has not yet said if he will seek the death penalty for Grant and Amanda Hayes. The couple is accused of killing Ackerson on July 13.
The torso was found Sunday about 50 yards from Grant Hayes' sister-in-law's house near Oyster Creek, officials said. Deputies said Grant and Amanda Hayes drove to Fort Bend County from North Carolina last week and stayed at the house Monday and Tuesday while they disposed of the body.
Searchers found the victim's head and a leg Monday afternoon floating in a patch of hydrilla along the west bank.
Deputies said Hayes' relatives apparently did not know about the body and they have not been charged.
Fort Bend County sheriff's deputies recovered two ice chests at Hayes' sister-in-law's house. A machete that may have been used in the killing was also discovered, officials said.