DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press
September 23, 2004
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. - The body of a retired South Carolina businessman was found frozen in a storage unit and a Sevierville couple arrested Thursday in what federal authorities believe may have been a bungled carjacking and accidental death.
"The interpretation I have right now is that his death was an accident," R. Joe Clark, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Knoxville, said of the victim, James Dale Cockman, 71, of Greenville, S.C.
Clark said an autopsy will be impossible until the victim's body thaws, but authorities believe he suffocated en route to Tennessee. Court documents said Cockman's mouth was covered by duct tape.
David Wendell Edens, 34, and Jennifer Annette Holloway, 27, were arrested without incident at their rural home and charged with carjacking. They had an initial federal court appearance Thursday in Knoxville and were being held by U.S. marshals.
Authorities were able to piece together what happened based on a statement from Holloway.
Additional charges for kidnapping were expected and possibly for murder, pending the autopsy, Clark said. Meanwhile, state kidnapping charges were filed in South Carolina.
Clark said the suspects made no attempt to contact Cockman's family for ransom since his disappearance Sept. 14.
Asked their plan, Clark said, "I don't believe they had a plan."
Cockman was last seen when he bought a cup of coffee at a convenience store in northern Greenville County near a lot where he was supposed to meet a couple interested in buying his 1996 GMC Suburban sport utility vehicle.
Cockman had received a $100 deposit on the vehicle the evening before from the suspects and was to collect the remaining $8,400 at the meeting the next day.
A criminal complaint filed by Greenville-based FBI Agent Martin Brown said the suspects traveled to South Carolina to steal Cockman's vehicle.
Holloway told authorities "that they ... met Jim at the site where the Suburban was parked. They forced Jim into the rear of the Suburban, placed duct tape on his mouth and drove the Suburban away. They traveled directly to their residence in Tennessee," Brown wrote.
"When they got here they realized their victim was dead," Clark told a news conference. "Mr. Eden put him in a deep freeze and took the deep freeze to a storage facility and left it there. Why I don't know."
Clark said the FBI was able to identify Holloway's cell phone number from calls during the car deal and were able track it to Sevierville.
Authorities obtained a search warrant and went to the suspects' home in this Great Smoky Mountains community.
"We didn't know if we had subjects or if we had witnesses or what we had," Clark said. "But we knew these people needed to be interviewed and as a result she (Holloway) provided us the information indicating, yes they did kidnap Mr. Cockman, they did carjack the vehicle.
"And the warrant for her arrest indicates he suffocated en route," Clark said.
Clark said Edens refused to talk to authorities, who recovered Cockman's Suburban at the home.
Authorities said they could not find any connection between the victim and the suspects. Holloway had misdemeanor arrests for shoplifting and forged checks in her past but no violence. Edens' criminal history was unknown.
"We don't know if there is a past history, if this was a random act," Clark said. "We don't know if they have done this before. We don't know if they were planning to do it again. We don't know if this was just a spur of the moment, whim thrill.
"Tragically, an individual has died as a result of this," he said.
Friends of Cockman had offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect, sheriff's Sgt. Shea Smith said.
Cockman moved to Greenville in 1985 as chairman and chief executive of Sara Lee's PYA/Monarch division, then became chairman of Sara Lee Foodservice before retiring in 1992.
Cockman played a major role in transforming Greenville into an urban and industrial hub. He was chairman of the chamber of commerce when BMW announced it was locating a manufacturing plant in the Upstate in 1992.
Renowned chef Paul Prudhomme was trying to spread the word about Cockman's disappearance.
Prudhomme had known Cockman about 15 years since the two served together on the board of directors at the California Culinary Academy of San Francisco, said Shawn McBride, CEO of Prudhomme's company Magic Seasoning Blends
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