The husband of a Roswell woman whose body was dumped on a southern Illinois road has been located in Washington and charged in her death, police said Tuesday.
Luther “Luke” Henderson, 39, was arrested Saturday just outside of Seattle on an outstanding warrant for felony murder, according to Atlanta police. Henderson and his wife, Tykeisha Dixon, were last seen May 6 after they left Dixon’s three sons with a babysitter and did not return home.
Dixon’s body was spotted two days later lying on a rural stretch of road outside the city of Edwardsville, a college town 20 miles northeast of St. Louis. The timeline of events leading up to her death remains murky.
Atlanta police believe Dixon, 33, was shot sometime May 6 near the intersection of North Avenue and Parkway Drive in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. According to a missing persons report filed by Roswell police, the newlyweds went to pick up Henderson’s daughter at a Taco Bell in the area that night.
The girl told her uncle “that while they were in the car together, Henderson took Dixon’s cellphone and threw it out the car, breaking it, somewhere on North Ave. in Atlanta,” the report said. “Henderson’s cellphone was broken as well.”
Atlanta police Detective Jamael Logan said he got involved after being contacted by the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, a multijurisdictional task force. He issued a lookout for the couple’s car, a blue Chrysler 200, which was found May 10 in the Chicago area, but Henderson remained missing.
“I did a canvass at the area that Tykeisha and Luther were last seen in, and with the help of witnesses, phone records and surveillance cameras, I was able to develop enough probable cause to charge Luther Henderson with the death of Tykeisha Dixon,” Logan said.
Henderson is awaiting extradition to Georgia to face his charges. Talaris Adams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution his family has been devastated by his sister’s death.
“She was a very caring, loving person,” Adams said. “She never met a stranger and her smile literally lit up the room. If you weren’t her friend before she first met you, you would be by the end of the night. She just loved people and she didn’t deserve what happened to her, at all.”
Dixon was honored at a memorial service Friday. Her family started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses and care for Dixon’s three boys, ages 10 to 16.
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