AL - Debbie Ayres, 49, found in shallow grave, Geneva County, 24 Oct 2014

Geneva County authorities have arrested two men in connection with a woman's body found Friday off U.S. 84 West.

Christopher Edward Finley, 44, of Dothan was charged with murder, the Dothan Eagle reported. Shawn Lee Adkison, 40, of Slocomb, was charged with felony hindering prosecution and misdemeanor unlawfully carrying a pistol.

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Helms said the arrests and charges stemmed from a Geneva County missing person investigation. He said the person found on property off U.S. 84 West in the Wicksburg community is believed to be a woman who had been reported missing a couple of months ago. “We know there’s a body and we know it’s a female, but we can’t say 100 percent who it is right now,” Helms said.

Alabama State Trooper Kevin Cook, a spokesperson for the SBI, released a statement late Friday, which said SBI agents had found a person’s body on some property off U.S. 84 West located just past County Road 9.

Cook said in the statement that law enforcement officers from the SBI assisted in the search for a missing person after receiving information on a possible location. He said agents obtained a search warrant for the property and a body was soon found with help from the Southwest Panhandle Search and Rescue cadaver dogs.

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Helms said the victim, now identified as Debbie Ayers, was found buried about 3 to 4 feet in the ground in the woods just past County Road 9 in Wicksburg. Helms said Ayers lived in the Black community of Geneva County.

Adams said Gillis testified at the preliminary hearing that the autopsy showed the woman died from multiple blunt force trauma about the body. He said testimony from the hearing also revealed Finley knew the victim, but they were not in a dating relationship. “Gillis testified that the defendant confronted the victim about some missing property, and that it escalated into an assault that caused her death,” Adams said.

Adams said the murder charge filed against Finley will be presented to a Geneva County jury for consideration of an indictment on April 1.

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Irene Bradley can breathe a little easier after a Slocomb man convicted of killing her sister received an 85-year prison sentence.

Bradley said her sister, Debbie Ayres, would’ve celebrated her 50th birthday on Tuesday, the same day Circuit Court Judge P.B. McLauchlin Jr. sentenced Shawn Adkison to prison...

A similar felony murder charge remains pending against Christopher Edward Finley, 45, of Dothan.

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