
DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070273

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

POLICE FIND BODY, BELIEVE IT TO BE MISSING WOMAN'S THE MAN LAST SEEN WITH HER AND ARRESTED IN HER CAR THEFT IS CHARGED WITH MURDER.

The body of a woman believed to be that of Candace ``Candy'' Arnaud was discovered early Monday morning by police in a rural thicket in Suffolk, and the man last seen with her was charged with her murder.

Norfolk police charged Jack Lynn Autery, 42, with first-degree murder after he led them to the body off Buckhorn Drive near Holland. Arnaud, the Norfolk mother of two young girls, has been missing for three weeks.

A positive identification of the body will not be made until the medical examiner's office in Norfolk has concluded an examination. Authorities said only that it was the body of a white woman.

Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Charles Griffith said Autery spoke to police over the weekend after he was extradited from Titusville, Fla., where he had been arrested in the theft of Arnaud's car.

After he was advised of his rights, Autery agreed to cooperate with police, Griffith said.

``In substance, he volunteered his involvement in what he had done,'' Griffith said.

Arnaud's family was contacted during the weekend and talked with Autery while he was in custody, Griffith said. During the weekend, he led investigators to several areas in Suffolk before he took them to the location where the body was found.

``Autery assisted investigators from the homicide section and state police in locating the body,'' Norfolk police spokeswoman Maravia Ebong said. ``The case was brought to a conclusion with the assistance of the Virginia State Police, FBI, Suffolk police and various Florida agencies.''

The body was found about 6 a.m., several yards from a dirt-vehicle path where timber has been cut. The body was lying in the thicket near a wooded area among broken trees and five-foot brush. The Buckhorn Road area is near Holland and is off U.S. Route 58, about 40 minutes from downtown Norfolk.

The body was partially decomposed, Suffolk police spokesman Mike Simpkins said. Investigators have not determined how long it had been there.

Autery, who has been acquitted of rape and sodomy charges twice this year in Portsmouth and Chesapeake, is being held without bond in the Norfolk City Jail.

Arnaud, 38, was last seen leaving a friend's residence in the 600 block of Ingleside Road in Norfolk about 11 p.m. Sept. 17. Police said she and Autery were on their way to Arnaud's house in the 500 block of Maycox Ave. when they vanished.

Arnaud's family had been hoping for Candace's safe return. They notified police within hours of her disappearance, saying that the Long Beach, Calif., native never would have left her daughters, Rose and Chelsea.

Her mother and two sisters flew to Norfolk from California, and her husband was flown in from his six-month deployment aboard the Navy cruiser Thomas S. Gates.

They could not be reached for comment Monday.

In an earlier interview, Arnaud's mother, Sharon Sweet, said Autery had offered to repair the air conditioning in her daughter's car.

Autery, who has a listed address in Portsmouth, was arrested on Sept. 30 at a hotel in Titusville after FBI investigators spotted the missing woman's car, a 1989 Ford Taurus. Titusville police said someone had been using Arnaud's credit cards and that Autery had been in Titusville since Sept. 19. Arnaud was not seen with him there.

Blood was found inside the Taurus, but its origin had not been determined.

Patty Schlosser, an FBI spokeswoman, said it does not appear that Autery committed any federal violations in the Arnaud case.

``We're still looking into the facts of the case,'' she said. ``It will be worked as a Norfolk homicide case.''

In General District Court Monday, Autery's court-appointed attorney, Robert E. Frank, asked for a mental evaluation to be conducted on his client, Griffith said. Autery is scheduled to appear in court for the auto-theft charge on Nov. 13. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

Norfolk police say Jack L. Autery led them to the body in Suffolk.

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

The body of a white female, found in this field off Buckhorn Drive

near Holland in Suffolk, is believed to be that of Candace ``Candy''

Arnaud.

Graphic

FUND

Make checks payable to: Benefit of Candace Arnaud, NationsBank c/o

Claudia Young, 717-209 Independence Blvd., Suite 487, Virginia

Beach, Va. 23455. KEYWORDS: MURDER KIDNAPPING MISSING PERSONS

ARREST