Ruthie Carolyn New, 70, was found dead inside Denham Street Baptist Church in Somerset, Kentucky, on Thursday, August 24, 2017. A charter member and the widow of the church’s founding pastor J.S. New, she served as the building’s custodian. Family reported her missing when they could not reach her; the church’s pastor, Jeff Griffith, searched the facilities and found her body in a storage room off the activity center. An autopsy confirmed homicide; authorities did not immediately release the specific cause of death. Her Toyota Corolla was missing from the scene.

Investigators identified 41-year-old Dwight Mitchell Bell as a person of interest and issued a warrant connected to the stolen vehicle, which was later recovered in Indianapolis. Bell was taken into custody in Dandridge, Tennessee, on September 12, 2017. According to reports, he later confessed to robbery and murder, saying he had asked New for food, was given potato chips, then attacked her, inflicting a fatal laceration to her neck before stealing her car and other belongings. In November 2017 Bell pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and prosecutors recommended life without parole.

Did anyone in the congregation or the Somerset area know of Bell’s presence around the church in the days before August 24, 2017?