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UPDATE: Sheriff labels Mendota carnival worker as suspected serial killer


(PHOTOS; Contributed / GRAPHIC: H. Williams / WCYB)
(PHOTOS; Contributed / GRAPHIC: H. Williams / WCYB)
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Washington County, Virginia Sheriff Fred Newman described a Mendota man jailed for the murders of three women as a serial killer.

Newman gave information about the three victims--two from Northeast Tennessee and one from Cobb County, Georgia--and their suspected murderer James Michael Wright, who admitted to police that he killed the victims but claims two of the deaths were accidental.

The sheriff said one of the major breaks in the case came when the cell phone of one of the missing victims, Athina Hopson, was discovered inside Wright's truck that was impounded following a serious crash on Nordyke Road on March 19.

Newman said crews will continue to search the Holston River to find Hopson's body. Wright told investigators that he accidentally shot her, put her body in the back of his truck and then placed her body in the river when he said he panicked when her body came out of the vehicle.

The bodies of the other victims--Elizabeth Vanmeter and Joslyn M. Alsup--were recovered in a wooded area near Wright's home in Mendota.

Vanmeter, 22, was found in a shallow grave and had been reported missing since March.

According to a Carter County Sheriff's Office report, a caretaker for Vanmeter said the woman was cognitively disabled and had the mental capacity of a 13-year-old. Vanmeter's guardian also said the woman left with Wright in the first week of February. Wright was interviewed by Carter County officers, the report said, and he told them that Vanmeter attacked him and he told her to leave his home.

Alsup's remains were reportedly found under some logs on Wright's property, the sheriff said. Wright met the 17-year-old victim while he worked with a traveling carnival company. Alsup was the daughter of one of Wright's co-workers, police said.

Newman said that the victims were only tentatively identified and an autopsy was being conducted to verify identification.

He also said that the weapon used in the killings, a .22 caliber rifle, has been recovered.

During the news conference on Monday, Commonwealth's Attorney Josh Cumbow said the death penalty is on the table for the case.

Wright is being held without bond in the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon.

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