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Carnival workers arrested in deaths of Kansas fair vendors

Posted at 8:56 AM, Jul 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-19 09:56:06-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities have arrested three carnival workers in the deaths of two vendors who disappeared from a fair in Kansas and were found in a shallow grave in an Arkansas forest.

Police Cpl. Jonathan Wear says the three are jailed without bond in Van Buren, Arkansas, on suspicion of abuse of a corpse, felony theft and tampering with physical evidence in the deaths of Sonny and Pauline Carpenter of Wichita, Kansas.

No charges have been filed. The bodies were found Wednesday in the Ozark National Forest.

Wear says authorities believe the couple was killed Friday after meeting the carnival workers at the fair in Barton County, Kansas. He says the suspects on Saturday drove the bodies 320 miles (515 kilometers) to Arkansas in the couple's recreational vehicle.