Police charged a former Arkansas state Senator’s friend and campaign staffer for her murder Monday.
Rebecca O’Donnell, 48, was charged for murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence in the killing of Linda Collins-Smith, 57, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Rebecca Lynn O’Donnell, pictured right, has been arrested in connection to the murder of former Republican. Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins Smith, pictured left. O’Donnell and her boyfriend campaigned for Collins Smith during the 2018 election: https://t.co/HxV6rDoktA pic.twitter.com/HingAo0GoW
— Heavy.com (@HeavySan) June 15, 2019
Collins-Smith was found dead in her home June 4 after suffering a gunshot wound. (RELATED: Second GOP State Senator Discovered Shot To Death In 2 Days)
Former press secretary for Collins-Smith, Ken Yang, said O’Donnell previously worked with the state senator in 2018, according to NBC.
O’Donnell is currently in custody, according to the Arkansas State Police.
Yang told The Daily Caller News Foundation over email Tuesday that he could not “speculate” to the “crimes Ms. O’Donnell is being charged with.”
All records related to the investigation were ordered to be sealed until the Circuit Court of Randolph County, Arkansas, “should declare that the record may be open,” a court order given to TheDCNF by Arkansas State Police public information officer Bill Sadler said.
Collins-Smith served in the state House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, switching from a Democrat to a Republican months after becoming elected. She was later elected to the state Senate in 2014 for District 19, the Daily Beast reported. She lost re-election in 2018.
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