BAY MINETTE, Alabama — A South Carolina man is facing murder charges in his home state after being arrested in the early morning hours at a gas station in Bay Minette.
Officials with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office say 42-year-old Dionicia Abarca was a passenger in a vehicle that was sitting at the Marathon gas station on Highway 287 at around 3 a.m. on Sunday, July 19.
According to a release issued Thursday by the BCSO Investigations Command, a patrol deputy spotted two men in the vehicle and since the business was closed, he approached to ask them what they were doing.
According to the release, the driver of the vehicle told the deputy that he was being forced to drive the other occupant, identified as Abarca, from South Carolina to Texas.
Abarca was charged with unlawful imprisonment and was booked into the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Corrections Center. The driver of the vehicle was released.
On Monday, July 20, the Sheriff’s Office received information from detectives with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina that they had discovered the body of a woman in a shallow grave in a cornfield.
The woman was identified as the wife of Abarca and the death was ruled a homicide. Detectives with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office drove to Baldwin County and arrested Abarca on murder charges. Abarca waived extradition and was transported back to South Carolina.
