HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. — Phillips County investigators are working to find out exactly what kind of weapon was used in a possible murder-suicide that happened on Sunday.
It all started with a strange 911 call Sunday morning.
The Helena-West Helena Police Department says Cornell Henry, 38, called saying he was going to commit a murder.
Sheriff Neal Byrd knows Henry personally and is surprised by all of this.
“My knowledge of this gentleman always has been a person that I know. I didn’t know of any mental issues or anything, but he was a person of good character,” he said.
Byrd said the 911 call only lasted a couple of minutes before it was cut off.
When police responded to the emergency, they decided to look into the river where they spent hours pulling a white car out of the water.
Not only did police find Henry with gunshot wounds, they also found his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Cherrkisha Jones.
Harry Williams says he tried to talk Henry out of killing his girlfriend before he actually did.
“He said that if he ever found out that she was cheating on him, he would hurt himself and her. I tried to tell him that’s not the way to go. God wouldn’t have you do that. He was like, ‘Maybe you’re right.’ I’m like, ‘I know I’m right,” Williams said.
Friends say Jones was anywhere from five to seven months pregnant when a the time of her death and already had a small child.
Police say an argument maybe the cause of the murder, but they are still looking into other possible motives.
“They may have had a disagreement about some issue about the female may have been dating someone else,” Sheriff Byrd said.
Williams says he talked to both of them and that cheating was something that was constantly talked about in their relationship.
“I believe with me talking with her, she was 100 percent sure that it was his and she’s not cheating.”
People in the community say Jones was a sweet girl, and they are saddened to learn how her life was taken from her too soon.
Williams says Henry was always laughing and making jokes.
He says he was an aspiring rapper who went by the name C-Way. He also owned his own trucking company and planned a life with Jones.
Investigators also searching a wallet believed to be Henry’s that was left near shore.
This case is a shocking one that the sheriff says he hasn’t seen in his four terms in office.
“This is something that has really traumatized the community. Never would we have expected anything like this to happen,” Sheriff Byrd said.
He says several departments have been working hour by hour to bring closure to both families.
