FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. — A Fayette County man was arrested hundreds of miles from home after the county sheriff’s office says he killed his wife, burned her body and buried her, then went on the run.
Channel 2′s Michael Doudna was in Fayette County, where Sheriff Barry Babb said he and his deputies are waiting for Kenneth Hardin, Jr. to be extradited back to Georgia.
The sheriff’s department said Hardin murdered his wife, then tried to hide the crime.
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Deputies were first made aware of the crime after they got a phone call from a home on Merlin Court. Hardin’s father called 911 and sheriff’s deputies went to the couple’s home on Merlin Court where they found evidence that matched his statements
“We did learn from the children that they had not seen their mother since Monday,” Babb said at a news briefing Thursday.
The sheriff’s office told Channel 2 Action News that the 39-year-old Hardin had confessed to family members that he’d killed his wife, Carrie Hardin, in self-defense the day before, burned her body and was leaving town.
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In the house, deputies found signs of blood and attempts to cover up a crime scene, an unthinkable sight for Hardin’s neighbors, who told Channel 2 Action News that they knew him as a kind, family man. Babb said it appeared that Mrs. Hardin died from gunshot wounds.
“He seemed like a cool dude. He had a fireworks show for the kids on the Fourth of July,” a neighbor said. “It’s shocking as hell.”
Investigators say they saw unusual signs, notably cameras all over the property, still able to be accessed remotely as they started searching for a victim at the house.
“He was watching us, and he was listening to us,” the sheriff’s office said.
On Wednesday, a cadaver dog found the burned remains of Hardin’s wife in a shallow grave behind the family home.
Authorities tracked Hardin to a motel in Louisiana, where he was taken into custody, admitting to many aspects of the crime, which left his 8- and 11-year-old children without a mother and has their father facing decades behind bars.
“You try not to get emotionally attached to this, but at the same time, you do grieve and know that things like this are hard on everybody,” Babb said.
The sheriff’s office didn’t reveal too many details on what caused the shooting, only saying alcohol was involved, and that video of the death was missing from the home’s security video.
Babb says that Kenneth Hardin is fully cooperating with investigators in answering their questions and has admitted to killing his wife.
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