A Tennessee husband has been charged with the murder of his wife, who was found with her throat cut beside the couple’s vehicle along a rural road.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation charged Benjamin Wayne Hopson, 36, with criminal homicide after witnesses saw him leaving the scene “naked, wet and having blood on his hand and body” on April 2, WATE reported. A Claiborne County deputy located him a short distance away from the body of 49-year-old Lori Ann Hopson, a corrections office in charge of the kitchen at the Claiborne County jail.
According to the arrest warrant, Hopson “violently attacked” his wife as they were traveling in the couple’s vehicle on Barren Creek Road in New Tazewell. The warrant says that after the vehicle slid off the road and down an embankment, Hopson cut her throat and left her body on the ground.
Hopson was arraigned on Tuesday and ordered to remain in jail until after his victim’s funeral. If he does post the $1 million bond, he is ordered to have no contact with her family.
TBI said Hopson was already in jail on “other charges” when he was arrested for his wife’s murder. It’s not clear what those charges were.
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[Featured image: Lori Ann Hopson/obituary photo and Benjamin Wayne Hopson/Claiborne County Jail]
