The state/region in brief

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Posted: July 28, 2009 at 4:57 a.m.

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LITTLE ROCK — Body found in car at Springdale motel

SPRINGDALE - Springdale police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Monday in the back seat of a car behind a Sunset Avenue motel.

Sgt. Shane Pegram said the body offered no clues as to the cause of death. The man was white and believed to have been in his 20s or 30s.

"There are no obvious signs of foul play," Pegram said. "I'm not going to speculate until the body gets to the state Crime Laboratory and they make that determination."

No identification was found on the body. Pegram said investigators were interviewing employees and guests of the Super 8 Motel at 4540 W. Sunset Ave.

late Monday in an attempt to learn his identity.

It isn't known whether the dark gray, late-model Mitsubishi Eclipse with Arkansas license tags belonged to the man, Pegram said.

Police were called at noon to investigate an abandoned vehicle, Pegram said. The dark tint of the windows made it difficult to see inside the vehicle, but officers could see the body through the windshield, he said.

It's not unusual for businesses to call the police about abandoned vehicles, which often prove to be stolen, Pegram said. The car had been parked next to thick foliage in the motel's rear parking lot since Saturday evening.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTER rain postpones lowering lake level

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' plan to begin a rapid drawdown of Beaver Lake has been postponed for at least several days.

In a news release July 20, the Corps announced plans to release water through Beaver Dam's turbines to lower the lake level 5 feet to the conservation pool level of about 1,121 feet. Water releases were to have begun last Friday, continuing at a rapid rate for about a week, then reduced.

Recent rainfall amounts of up to 5 inches in the area around and below Bull Shoals prompted the delay, said Kevin Fagot, a Little Rock-based Corps engineer for the White River System lakes.

Runoff from the rain will need to be flushed out before the drawdown of Beaver Lake can begin, Fagot said Monday.

"We anticipate the releases from Beaver Lake could begin Friday or Saturday, but that depends on the amount of rainfall we might get this week," he said.

The National Weather Service in Tulsa predicts an increasing chance of showers or thunderstorms in the area each day through Thursday.

The rainfall also delayed a plan to begin minimal releases from Bull Shoals Dam to create extended low-water conditions in the tailwaters for the first time in more than a year.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Man shot, killed at friend's party

ASH FLAT - Sharp County authorities are considering the fatal shooting of an Evening Shade man Saturday evening a homicide, Sgt. Mark Counts, a detective with the sheriff's office, said Monday.

Eulogio Garcia, 48, was shot in the head at 6:24 p.m.

Saturday while attending a party at a friend's house on Arkansas 56, Counts said. He was transported by medical helicopter to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where he died Sunday morning.

"We're considering this as a homicide," Counts said.

No arrests have been made, he said.

The detective would not release the type of weapon used to shoot Garcia.

He said eight or nine people attended the party and several witnessed the shooting. He said several people had been drinking at the time of the shooting.

Garcia's body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Oklahoma woman killed in crash

An Oklahoma woman was killed Monday in a collision on Arkansas 12 west of Gentry, State Police said.

Tara Nicole Russell, 26, was traveling east on the highway at 8:11 a.m. when her 2006 Kia Sorento crossed the center line into oncoming traffic.

Russell's Sorento struck a 2009 Mack Truck driven by Gerald W. Fain, 34. Russell was flown to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, where she died, according to a news release.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Volunteers clear state park trails

ROGERS - Volunteers have completed clearing four trails in the Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area that had been littered with downed trees and limbs after January's ice storm.

"Our volunteers have been steadfast in the trail cleanup effort. Hobbs suffered more than 100 trees per mile down on our 34 miles of trail," said Al Knox, Hobbs' trail maintenance supervisor, in a news release.

"This monumental task would not have been completed in as short a time as it took without the assistance of so many wonderful volunteers."

The last trail to be cleared was the War Eagle loop, a 6-mile trail that features an overlook of the War Eagle Creek valley.

- BENTON COUNTY DAILY RECORD

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 07/28/2009

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