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An official confirmed Tuesday that a former Mississippi lawmaker was fatally shot this week at the same property where her sister-in-law’s body was found after a fire that is still under investigation.
Yallopusha County Coroner Ronnie Stark told NBC News that Ashley Henley, 40, who served as a Republican Mississippi representative from 2016 to 2020, was killed in the murder last weekend.
She died of a gunshot wound. “It’s being investigated as a murder,” Stark said Tuesday.
Stark said authorities discovered the body at the property in northern Mississippi on Sunday night.
Outside the burning trailer, Stark said, her sister-in-law Christina Michelle Jones was found dead on December 26.
Officials continue to investigate the murder of Jones, 33. Stark noted that an autopsy had been performed, but his office was awaiting the results of an investigation by the fire chief.
On Tuesday, multiple requests for comment to the Yalupusha County Sheriff’s Office were not immediately answered.
Henley’s relatives could also not be reached.
NBC affiliate WMC reports in Memphis that Henley was mowing the lawn outside the trailer when she was killed. The outlet reported that Brandon Henley, Henley’s husband, said she was shot in the head.
“She was a wonderful person, she had a great heart, and she was a voice for people who don’t have a voice,” Brandon Henley told WMC.
The Washington Post reported that Jones’ body was found after a December fire in her father’s trailer. The newspaper reported that the Henley family had been critical and outspoken about the investigation into Jones’ death.
On April 6 on Facebook, Brandon Henley wrote that investigators had judged the fire to be arson and found that there was no smoke in Jones’ lungs, an indication that she had died before the fire, the Washington Post reported.
Ashley Henley had a tense confrontation with the vice mayors around the same time as she was bringing flowers to the memorial on the property. The Washington Post said officers stopped her during the incident and tried to intimidate her.
WMC reports that Henley was defeated in her 2019 re-election bid by just 14 votes.
Antonio Planas
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