A registered sex offender has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a woman in northeast Arkansas, authorities said.
Harold Bennett was arrested June 22 in the killing of 29-year-old Blytheville resident Bianca Rainer, according to a news release from the Blytheville Police Department.
Police Chief Ross Thompson said utility workers found Rainer's body at 10 a.m. June 20 at her home in the 2000 block of West Cherry Street. Her body was taken to the state medical examiner's office, where coroners labeled her death a homicide.
An investigation led detectives to Bennett, a Level 4 sex offender who was wanted on a parole violation, the release said. Thompson said the 43-year-old had been convicted of sex crimes in Jonesboro and had failed to report as a sex offender when he moved from his listed address in Walnut Ridge.
During an interview, Bennett told authorities that he assaulted Rainer and provided investigators with details of the assault that matched the state Crime Laboratory's findings, according to the release.
Bennett was being held Thursday in the Mississippi County jail, deputies said.
Metro on 06/29/2018