A Choctaw County man is facing a first-degree murder charge in connection with a body being discovered in a canal in the Stewart area last week.
According to Montgomery County Sheriff Jeff Tompkins, Charles Anthony Cox, 40, was arrested Tuesday morning by the Choctaw County Sheriff’s Department and charged with the murder of Jimmy Threadgill, 53.
Threadgill’s body was discovered by two fishermen January 29 in a canal off the Big Black River near Stewart-Huntsville Road in Montgomery County, although Tompkins said the murder is thought to have been committed in Choctaw County and Threadgill’s body placed in the canal after death.
Montgomery County Coroner Allan Pratt pronounced Threadgill dead at the scene and took the body to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Pearl for autopsy.
Tompkins said the autopsy revealed Threadgill died from a single gunshot. There was no missing persons report filed on Threadgill to help estimate an exact time of death, but Tompkins said his body was in the canal no more than three days before it was discovered.
“This is an ongoing investigation with the likelihood of more arrests,” Tompkins said.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, Choctaw County Sheriff’s Department, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is working together on the investigation of this case.
Cox is currently being held in the Winston-Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility in Louisville.
