GUILTY AL - Arletha Hopkins, 36, found dead in freezer, Mobile, Nov 2004

[mysteriew]

Hopkins and his daughters were part of a gospel singing group known as the Hopkins Ensemble.

They sang joyous songs, celebrating life and the Lord. But deep down, witnesses say the daughters of Anthony Hopkins were living a tortured life. The family's songs once played on the radio station WLVV, 1410 a.m. General Manager Tom Alexander heard the group sing in person. He says Hopkins and his daughters came to the station.

"I asked him for a CD. He said he didn't have any. He just wanted to do it live. So, the little girls, they sung acapella. They were really good. They sung really good," said Alexander.

Their voices were angelic. But their spirits didn't match the lyrics.
http://www.myfoxgulfcoast.com/myfox...n=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.1.1

 

[mysteriew]

"Well she was a nice, sweet girl. She was real sweet," says the Arletha's aunt Alma J. Best. 2003 was the last year her saw her niece. She remembers Arletha was happy. She certainly wasn't expecting this.

snip...Due to the condition of the body, an autopsy will not be started until early next week. Hopkins was denied bond today. He's charged with murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, and incest. We're told family members would be making the trip to Mobile to get the children int the next few days.

http://www.wrdw.com/news/headlines/26157304.html

 

[mysteriew]

The affidavit related the daughter's story as follows:

Her mother, Arletha Hopkins, 36, caught her father abusing her in a bathroom in November 2004. Afterward, her parents argued, and her mother locked her father out of the house. The father came to the daughter's window and asked her to let him in, and she did so.

The next morning, her father asked her to help him hide her mother's body in the freezer in the laundry room of the home.

The girl said she moved out of the home about two weeks ago and was living with a neighbor. She told police that her mother's body was still in the freezer.

When authorities went to the home, no one was there, as Hopkins and the other children were at the church. A body was found in the freezer, the affidavit says.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/preacher.freezer/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

 

[Grainne Dhu]

That is horrifying!!! She had not been heard from in THREE years (!!!!) and nobody reported her missing??!!! The story gets even sicker!!!! This man needs to go straight to hell.. do not pass go. He is nothing less than evil.

He sounds like he was abusive... and one of the first things abusive partners do is cut their victim off from other sources of social support. The family of the victim is often left without contact with the victim and no real recourse.

Often the family knows that if they try to contact the victim it will trigger the abuser into anger, so they're reluctant to do anything that might make life worse for the victim.

What a tragedy.

 

[Parker]

How terrible for those children! I hope that they can go on and live a semi-normal life now...can you imagine living in a house and KNOWING your mother is in the freezer...This man (if you can call him that) is despicable...

 

[Kymistry35]

What an awful story! I hope that they are all receiving help and that the kids can lead something of a normal life. I hope that rots in Hell!!!!

 

[wildTrose]

Not Guilty Plea In Freezer Murder Case
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - A part-time south Alabama evangelist has
pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the death of his wife, a
mother of eight whose body had been in a freezer at their home
since 2004.
Anthony Hopkins also pleaded not guilty Tuesday to separate
charges of rape, sodomy and incest. Prosecutors say the teenage
victim in that case is a female relative.
http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/not_guilty_plea_in_freezer_body_case/16585/

 

[brad]

maybe I missed this, but how did they explain the fact that she's been missing for 3 years + ?

 

[MCDRAW]

maybe I missed this, but how did they explain the fact that she's been missing for 3 years + ?

He told people that she died after having their last child. He told her family that she didn't want anything to do with them.

 

[believe09]

I applaud the courage and strength of the child that turned him in. I am amazed that she got to move out and live rather than being "eliminated." There was undoubtedly a threat to the children who were left behind as well as her own need to tell her story.

What has me puzzled was the fact that the father was charged with incest among other things and yet he fathered 6/8 of the children-I am curious as to which two children were not his bio children?

 

[mysteriew]

They are saying they think he also abused one of the other children besides the one that turned him in. I think that is where the incest charge might come in. Though some states do define incest as sex between step-parent and stepchild.

I keep thinking about the girl. The way I have it figured, he began abusing her about the age of 10. About the age of 15 Mom finds out, and he kills Mom. He makes the girl help put her in the freezer. Then for the next three years or so, she was probably being abused as well as acting as a mother figure for the younger kids. All while knowing that Mommy was in the freezer. Did he think that by making her involved in hiding her Mother's body that he could ensure her cooperation?

My guess is that she found out he was abusing the younger sister and that is why she broke away and told. From the sound of the last sermon, my guess is that he knew she was going to tell. That surprises me. I guess she could have sneaked away and he could have just guessed that she would tell.

 

[wildTrose]

New Details In Freezer Murder
A travelling preacher accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer may have first buried her in a shallow grave.

Anthony Hopkins, 37, was back in court today for a preliminary hearing where shocking new details were released.

http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/new_details_in_freezer_murder/16868/

 

[mysteriew]

Wowsie. Why keep burying her and digging her back up? Fear of someone finding her? Or did he do it to keep reminding the girl when he thought she might edge out of his control?

 

[SewingDeb]

This is even worse for that poor girl than I thought.

 

[believe09]

I think he was afraid his wife would rise from the dead....

 

[mysteriew]

I found the answer to my question.

Police say pastor moved wife's body, impregnated daughter

Itinerant preacher Anthony Jujuan Hopkins killed his wife and buried her in a shallow grave, but dug her up and put her in a home freezer when her bloating body began to crack the ground, police told a judge on Wednesday.
Investigators testifying in Hopkins' preliminary hearing also stated that one of the family's daughters — the same daughter who turned Hopkins in — is five months pregnant and claims Hopkins is the father. She told police that Hopkins:

snip..."Don't be telling my business," Hopkins told his daughter, then suggested that she wanted him sexually, which caused her to want her mother dead.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-08-14-hopkins-accused_N.htm

LOL, when police showed up at the church where Hopkins was preaching and told him they were there about a body, he cursed. Doesn't sound like the same man who spoke of forgiveness does it?

 

[believe09]

I found the answer to my question.

Police say pastor moved wife's body, impregnated daughter

Itinerant preacher Anthony Jujuan Hopkins killed his wife and buried her in a shallow grave, but dug her up and put her in a home freezer when her bloating body began to crack the ground, police told a judge on Wednesday.
Investigators testifying in Hopkins' preliminary hearing also stated that one of the family's daughters — the same daughter who turned Hopkins in — is five months pregnant and claims Hopkins is the father. She told police that Hopkins:

snip..."Don't be telling my business," Hopkins told his daughter, then suggested that she wanted him sexually, which caused her to want her mother dead.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-08-14-hopkins-accused_N.htm

LOL, when police showed up at the church where Hopkins was preaching and told him they were there about a body, he cursed. Doesn't sound like the same man who spoke of forgiveness does it?

This is one classy individual. I suppose that he will do well behind bars when released into the general population simply because he has brass, uh, ones.

 

[mysteriew]

This is one classy individual. I suppose that he will do well behind bars when released into the general population simply because he has brass, uh, ones.

Hopkins Isolated From Prisoners

An evangelical preacher accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer is in isolation tonight, waiting to face a judge tomorrow.

Anthony Hopkins, 37, is being housed separate from other inmates at Mobile Metro Jail, but he will be in court Wednesday for his preliminary hearing, says Hopkins' attorney, Jeff Deen.
http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/hopkins_isolated_from_prisoners1/16823/

I guess that they figured the other prisoners might object to the idea that Hopkins killed his wife to get at her daughter and impregnate her.

 

[mysteriew]

I think he was afraid his wife would rise from the dead....

LOL, I guess you might say that in some ways she did. They say that when her body bloated her grave cracked open and that is why he dug her up.

 

[mysteriew]

Here's a twist in the case. I have suspected, and continue to suspect a history of domestic violence and attempts to isolated the family from other family and friends.

But they have found one police report of domestic violence in 2001. But instead of DV against the wife, it is a complaint against the wife that Hopkins made.

Freezer Murder: History Of Domestic Violence
http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/domestic_dispute_reported_before_freezer_murder/16909/

A favorite defense by abusers is that "she started it" and sometimes if it comes to the attention of authorities, the abuser will try to make sure the victim gets the blame for any incident. I don't know if that happened in this case of course.

BTW, when Hopkins dug up his wife and moved her, it wasn't just from grave to grave, it was from town to town.