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

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Unbelievable that no one reported her missing for three YEARS!!!! Some of the kids were old enough to have spoken up. I wonder if they knew she was in there? He likely abused them for years as well.
 
The good rev is also being investigated for rape and sodomy of one of these children I believe. I am going to have to stay off the boards today because I read this story this AM and wanted to curl up-there is great evil in this world.
 
Yes - it does sound like he has controlled these children and abused them. It is my opinion that the Lord will deal with him in a special way. I have no tolerance for people who preach the word of God while doing the acts of the devil. Absolutely None! If you can not trust a man/woman of God - than you can trust nothing.

Salem
 
believe09 said:
The good rev is also being investigated for rape and sodomy of one of these children I believe. I am going to have to stay off the boards today because I read this story this AM and wanted to curl up-there is great evil in this world.
Click to expand...

The 19 yr old daughter apparently went to the childs advocate center to report the sexual abuse, and that lead to a search warrant and the disvocery of the mother.
One of the stories the father told neighbors was the mother died in childbirth of their youngest who is now 4. He also had told she ran off with another man < :waitasec: that ole story lol
Im just surprised as everyone else that no one bothered to look for the mother....does she not have any family?
 
Police believe a body found in a small-time evangelist's home freezer is his wife and a mother of eight, and arrested him on a murder charge as he preached at a small south Alabama church. Anthony Hopkins, 37, was being held in the Mobile County jail Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing and appointment of an attorney.
Police said no one reported 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins missing, even though she hadn't been heard from in three years. The body was discovered covered in a freezer in a utility room during a police search of the home in Mobile after a relative of the preacher contacted police.

Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett said Hopkins was arrested Monday night at at a revival in Jackson, a town in rural Clarke County where he has roots. The pastor of Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, Beverly Jackson, told reporters that Hopkins told her he was a single parent because his wife had died in childbirth.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/539944.html
 
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.

Garrett said Anthony Hopkins, the father of six of the eight children, has been charged with rape and sodomy in a separate case involving the female relative and could face more charges related to another relative.
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PSUfan said:
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.
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I second that!

:mad:
fran
 
PSUfan said:
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.
Click to expand...


I'll third it!:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
 
Beyond Belief said:
Police believe a body found in a small-time evangelist's home freezer is his wife and a mother of eight, and arrested him on a murder charge as he preached at a small south Alabama church. Anthony Hopkins, 37, was being held in the Mobile County jail Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing and appointment of an attorney.
Police said no one reported 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins missing, even though she hadn't been heard from in three years. The body was discovered covered in a freezer in a utility room during a police search of the home in Mobile after a relative of the preacher contacted police.

Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett said Hopkins was arrested Monday night at at a revival in Jackson, a town in rural Clarke County where he has roots. The pastor of Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, Beverly Jackson, told reporters that Hopkins told her he was a single parent because his wife had died in childbirth.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/539944.html
Click to expand...

From the link:

Garrett said Anthony Hopkins, the father of six of the eight children, has been charged with rape and sodomy in a separate case involving the female relative and could face more charges related to another relative.

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said the children who lived with Hopkins - who ranged in age from 3 to 19 - have been taken into protective custody by the Department of Human Resources.
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One and possibly two of the kids sexually abused. And how long have they known what happened to Mom?
 
Previous pastor talks about Hopkins, his wife and kids. Sounds like they are a mystery family. Doesn't know where they came from, doesn't know any family, and the wife didn't talk much. When she disappeared, the pastor talked to Hopkins and then Hopkins moved on.

http://www.myfoxgulfcoast.com/myfox...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Recently the kids were homeschooled, and went to various churches. There is definately something wrong here.
 
According to the search warrant, a sexual affair involving Anthony Hopkins and one of his eight children had been going on for eight years. In the warrant, one of Hopkins' daughters says on or around November 4, 2004, her mother, Arletha Hopkins, caught her dad sexually abusing her in a bathroom at their home. The daughter says that lead to an argument, and the next morning her father asked her to help hide her mom's body in a freezer.
http://www.wkrg.com/investigates/article/shocking_new_details_in_freezer_murder/16412/

The oldest kid is 19 and six of the 8 kids are his. This 'affair' has been going on for 8 years. He's charged with incest, so I would bet the abused child they know about is younger than the 19 year old.

Police also removed a trailer from the backyard of the home.
http://www.wkrg.com/crime_solutions...emove_travel_trailer_from_hopkins_yard/16386/

Neighbors were told that the wife ran off and left hubby and kids. No missing persons report was ever filed.
http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/neighbors_react_to_body_discovery/16381/

Just curious, is this an area that missing female kids or young adults?
 
mysteriew said:
Previous pastor talks about Hopkins, his wife and kids. Sounds like they are a mystery family. Doesn't know where they came from, doesn't know any family, and the wife didn't talk much. When she disappeared, the pastor talked to Hopkins and then Hopkins moved on.

http://www.myfoxgulfcoast.com/myfox...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Recently the kids were homeschooled, and went to various churches. There is definately something wrong here.
Click to expand...

When the people at the church were suspicous about what happened to the mother, why didn't anybody contact the police? Those poor kids!!

VB
 
The pastor didn't say what he was told. But in reading up about this case, it looks like people that knew her that noticed she wasn't there were told that she had ran away with another man. People he met after she was killed were told that she died in childbirth. Which incidentally if you notice, she is thought to have been dead 3 years, her youngest child is 3.

Since she was so quiet, and they had only been at that church for about a year, my guess would be that no one knew her well enough to stand up and say she wouldn't leave her kids. Except for her kids, and they were isolated. Homeschooling, frequent moves and no regular church kept the kids isolated and no one to get close to so that they could tell.

But what caught my attention most was from the old pastor. They were only at that church for a year, didn't talk about where they came from, didn't talk about other family, wife not talking to people- I'm wondering if they were running from something.
 
Wife's name is Arletha Hopkins. And it looks as though of the 8 children, only 6 of them were living in the home.
http://www.myfoxgulfcoast.com/myfox...=11&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Three page article

snip
With seven of his children in the front row Monday night -- the eighth was meeting with Mobile police -- Hopkins launched into his sermon, much of which centered on the topic of forgiveness, Jackson said.

"I felt in my spirit that he knew what was going to happen to him. Even if he didn't know it was going to happen here," Jackson said, reflecting on Hopkins' message.

Hopkins told the congregation that his eldest daughter had left the house.

"He said he told her she had to do what she had to do," Jackson said. Looking at his seven children, "He asked them to forgive him for his sins: past, present and future."

When his sermon concluded, Jackson said, he began to minister individually to people in the crowd. His children played accompanying music on instruments he had brought with him. There was even a miniature drum set for one of his younger sons.

When he worked his way away from the pulpit, Jackson said, deputies and police entered, guns drawn, and took him into custody.

She took the children out of the church, playing with the younger ones, who seemed not to understand exactly what was happening. The older daughters, she said, hardly reacted at all.

Hear part of that sermon here: http://blog.al.com/pr/2008/07/preachers_last_sermon.html

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1217409343125180.xml&coll=3&thispage=3
 
It sounds like the oldest daughter turned him in. She was probably the one he was raping over the years and he may have started in on a younger child prompting her to seek help. Or, he could have threatened her doing what he did to her mother. In any case, I am glad she went to LE and the children are away from him.

This is another horrible case of abuse and murder.
 
mysteriew said:
snip
With seven of his children in the front row Monday night -- the eighth was meeting with Mobile police -- Hopkins launched into his sermon, much of which centered on the topic of forgiveness, Jackson said.

"I felt in my spirit that he knew what was going to happen to him. Even if he didn't know it was going to happen here," Jackson said, reflecting on Hopkins' message.

Hopkins told the congregation that his eldest daughter had left the house.

"He said he told her she had to do what she had to do," Jackson said. Looking at his seven children, "He asked them to forgive him for his sins: past, present and future."
Click to expand...

My spirit would be a little less generous. Future sins?? Good luck on that, it's probably gonna be a lot of what was done unto others is now gonna be done unto you Rev. :furious:
 
I understand his secrecy after his wife died. But why all the secrecy before she died? It sounds as though they didn't stay long anywhere, and didn't get to know anyone well. No one knows of any family. I did read somewhere that they may have lived in Jackson. I just feel they are running from something in the past, before the mother.
 
snip...Assistant District Attorney Ashley Rich said Arletha Hopkins, 36, apparently was killed in November 2004, though the cause of her death was still under investigation.

snip...Rich said Anthony Hopkins had told his wife's relatives in Wadley, Ga., that she didn't want any contact with them. Her disappearance was never reported to police.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,395331,00.html
 
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