Abandonment of corpse charge dropped

July 1, 2020 at 5:05 a.m. | Updated July 8, 2020 at 6:18 p.m.

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Special to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette - 10/08/2014 - Staff members at the Yell County Juvenile Detention Center place Scott Tanner, the state's juvenile justice ombudsman, in the WRAP restraint system and a motorcycle helmet, demonstrating how the staff have restrained disruptive youths at the facility. The practice has since been halted after the state Division of Youth Services learned of it. - Photo obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act

Cole County prosecutors have dismissed abandonment of a corpse charges against a Jefferson City man and woman who each face one count first-degree murder in connection with the death of the woman's ex-husband in November 2015.

Suzanne Ponder-Williams, 48, and Sandy Gallaspie, 58, are charged with murder in Moniteau County.

Ponder-Williams is scheduled to appear in court next month, and Gallaspie is scheduled to appear in court in February.

Court records show the crime occurred on or around Nov. 24, 2015. The Moniteau County Sheriff's Department listed Jon Williams, of California, as a missing person on that date. He is the ex-husband of Ponder-Williams.

Ponder-Williams and Gallaspie were charged in June 2019 with abandonment of a corpse in Cole County after authorities found human remains in the 2700 block of Bess Hill Road.

Charging documents filed in Moniteau County Circuit Court claim Ponder-Williams acted with Gallaspie in Jon Williams' death by luring Williams to the low-water crossing on Mount Hope Road in Moniteau County where Gallaspie shot him.