Chambers County Sheriff’s deputies responding to a call on the morning of June 10 discovered the bodies of Daniel Robbins, 44, and Jessica Folds, 47, in a wooded area near an abandoned vehicle in Lanett, Alabama, authorities said. The truck was still running with the driver’s side door open and the tailgate down, according to District Attorney Mike Segrest.
Autopsy results and an investigation by local and state law enforcement determined that Folds was strangled, Segrest told AL.com. He said it appeared Robbins was trying to dispose of Folds’s body in a remote location when he died.
“He died of a heart attack while doing it,” Segrest told AL.com. “Their bodies were right there together.”
According to investigators, Robbins is suspected of strangling Folds in an act of domestic violence before suffering an apparent heart attack while attempting to hide her body in the woods. Segrest said he believed the events occurred the previous night, citing the fact that the truck was still running when deputies arrived.
Drag marks in the dirt led from the truck into the woods where the bodies were found, according to Segrest.
The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office sent the bodies to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science for autopsies, which confirmed the cause of death for each person, authorities said in a statement.
Folds, described as a Lanett resident, was the mother of three adult sons. An obituary said she “touched the lives of many with her heart of gold, deep love for everyone, and a smile that brightened the world.” Robbins, from Georgia, was survived by a daughter, according to his obituary.