Authorities: Central Arkansas woman's SUV found days after abduction, killing

Elvia Fragstein’s silver 2013 Honda CR-V was found charred Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in Pine Bluff in the 300 block of North Elm Street, days after her body was found along a rural Jefferson County road.
Elvia Fragstein’s silver 2013 Honda CR-V was found charred Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in Pine Bluff in the 300 block of North Elm Street, days after her body was found along a rural Jefferson County road.

Authorities on Tuesday located the SUV of a 71-year-old woman believed to have been abducted in central Arkansas before being found dead along a rural road last week.

Jefferson County sheriff’s office spokesman Maj. Lafayette Woods Jr. said in a statement that Elvia Fragstein’s silver 2013 Honda CR-V was found charred that morning in the 300 block of North Elm Street in Pine Bluff.

The Wooster resident’s body was found Wednesday by a motorist in a wooded area along Gibb Anderson Road in rural Jefferson County, south of Pine Bluff. Fragstein’s death has been ruled a homicide.

The Faulkner County sheriff’s office says Fragstein’s husband, Helmut Fragstein, reported her missing July 7 after she did not return from a shopping trip in Conway.

Security footage at the Conway Commons shopping center showed Fragstein leaving T.J. Maxx around 3:30 p.m. that day. Her Honda was then seen traveling through the parking lot and along Elsinger Boulevard “at a high rate of speed,” authorities said.

Police have arrested two teenagers — 18-year-old Tacori Mackrell and 16-year-old Robert Lee Smith Jr. — on kidnapping and theft of property counts in Fragstein’s abduction. They are expected to be charged as adults.

Smith was transported from Jefferson County to Faulkner County on Monday, and Mackrel was awaiting transport to Faulkner County as of Tuesday morning.

“Both will likely face additional charges pending formal filing by the 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s office,” Woods said.

Assisting in the search for Fragstein’s vehicle were the Jefferson County and Faulkner County sheriff’s offices as well as police departments in Conway and Pine Bluff.

The Honda has been “secured for forensic processing,” according to authorities.

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