LOCKSEBURG, Ark. (KTAL/KMSS) – A 20-year-old Lockesburg man and a 17-year-old girl are facing charges after the sheriff found the body of their newborn boy in a dumpster.
Sevier County Sheriff Robert Gentry says he found the baby’s body on Nov. 7 after investigating a tip that included video of the baby being born at a home inside a mobile home community on Provo Road in Lockesburg. Investigators went to the home and learned that the baby did not live and was disposed of.
Deputies and investigators searched the area before Gentry discovered the body of the newborn baby boy in a nearby dumpster.
The sheriff says the teen girl and the man believed to be the baby’s father, Matthew Hallmark, were both arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse. Bond was set for each at $50,000 and both have since bonded out as they await trial on the felony charge.
The baby’s body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock for an autopsy, and the sheriff says the investigation is ongoing.
Hallmark was arraigned on Dec. 8 and pleaded not guilty. A jury trial is set for February 17, 2023.
