Decade-Old Sex Case Possible Motive for Murders

Reported by: Eli Ross
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Updated: 9/11/2012 11:15 am
TRUMANN, AR (abc24.com) - Could the possible motive in the deaths of a terminally ill man and his caretaker be a sex crime dating back more than a decade?

On Sunday, Arkansas State Police arrested John Arnoult, 28, of Jonesboro and charged him in the September 2nd murders of John Poff and Connie Cole.

Poff and Cole were found murdered in Poff's mobile home in Trumann.

"My sister and I both knew whoever done this couldn't have known my mother," said Laci Cole, Connie Cole's daughter. "Nobody would have ever wanted to hurt her."

According to online records, Poff was a Level 2 sex-offender, convicted of sexual abuse more than a decade ago. Prosecutor Scott Ellington says Poff's victim was one of Arnoult's relatives.

"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Cole says of her mom.

Cole says her mother was helping Poff.

"He had a terminal illness, 2 months to live," Cole said. "That was my mom, she didn't care what you had done in the past; if you needed help, she was going to help you."

Arnoult remains in jail. He is due back in court in late-October.
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JillSmith - 9/15/2012 10:25 PM
0 Votes
I agree 100% with ShellyStow! This has to stop. How many others are going to have to suffer because of this hit list. How many are suffering because of it, but it never comes out that the victims were found and killed or harassed because their address was seen on the registry. We need to protect all children including children offenders and other family members or caretakers of the offenders. This public registry is obviously turning out not protect anyone. The same people are committing new sex crimes as before the public registry. That would be 95% if the time the people not on the registry. That would be the family members and people that families trust in their own homes, not the people on the registry trying to put their lives back together and be productive law-abiding citizens.

ShellyStow - 9/15/2012 12:29 PM
1 Vote
Before the "He was a sex offender; he had it coming" crowd get started, this open season on anyone ever convicted or even accused of a sexual crime must stop. Mr. Poff committed crimes over a decade ago. He was punished as appropriate by the judicial system. This vigilante mindset that one is entitled to decide the court-ordered punishment wasn't enough and therefore more can be meted out by individual citizens has, not for the first time, taken a totally innocent life. It is actually immaterial to the situation, but apparently Mr. Poff would have died of his illness very soon anyway. Why was it so necessary to murder him before that could happen AND murder an innocent person in the process? Perhaps the killer did not know this. Would it have made a difference if he had? It is unclear whether Mr. Arnoult knew where Mr. Poff lived independent of the public registry or if he used that registry to locate his target and victim. If the later, this is intolerable. How can a system force individuals to put information on a PUBLIC registry and in so doing paint a bulls-eye on their own foreheads and those of any family, friends, or caretakers who are at the same address when crazed maniacs decide to take the law into their own hands? At the very least, addresses must be removed from public view. I am sorry for the abuse that Mr. Arnault's relative suffered all those years ago, but right now I am sorrier for those whose Mr. Poff's and Mrs. Cole's deaths leave in grief and mourning.
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