A man died in Alabama from a heart attack while trying to discard his girlfriend’s body after fatally strangling her, according to authorities.
On the morning of Wednesday, June 10, the bodies of Jessica Folds, 47, and Daniel Robbins, 44, were found next to each other in a wooded area near an abandoned vehicle in the town of Lanett, authorities said.
The Chambers sheriff’s office said in a statement that officials sent the bodies to the Alabama department of forensic science for autopsies.
Investigators were subsequently reported to have found that Robbins, described as being from Georgia, and Folds, said to be from Lanett, had been in a relationship before her death. He allegedly killed her before he died while trying to hide her body, according to investigators.
“He died of a heart attack while doing it,” said a local district attorney, Mike Segrest. “Their bodies were right there together.”
Segrest said the investigation by local and state law enforcement, combined with autopsy results, determined that Folds “was strangled” and “it appears [Robbins] was attempting to dispose of [her] body in a remote location” when he died.
Segrest said the truck near the bodies of Robbins and Folds was still running and the driver’s side door was open when deputies arrived to find them.
The tailgate was down, he said to AL.com, and there were drag marks in the dirt into the woods where the couple were found.
Segrest told the outlet that investigators suspected Robbins killed Folds as an act of domestic violence. The prosecutor added that he believed everything had happened the previous night, citing the fact that the truck was still running.
Local news outlets reported that Folds 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’s survivors included a daughter, according to his obituary.
