crime

Authorities searching the property surrounding the home of Steven Collins and Wendy Bailey on Thursday, Jan. 2. | Photo courtesy of Fayette County Sheriff Byron Yerby 

On Thursday, Jan. 2, authorities responded to a shooting on Water Mill Road in Pickens Co. According to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, when deputies arrived they found a man that was fatally wounded by gunfire. The suspect, Russell Douglas Beede, 23, of Fayette, was taken into custody. Beede has been charged with murder and is currently being held in the Pickens County Jail with a $2 million dollar bond.

The investigation into the disappearance of Kahleb Rowan Collins, a one year old from Glen Allen, intensified on Wednesday as officials began searching the residence and surrounding property of the home on Hwy. 129 for any sign of the missing child. Members of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department were observed around 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the residence stretching crime scene tape around the area. A search for Collins began shortly after a crash that killed his father, 2- year-old sister and severely injured his mother.

Pictured from left to right: Jeanee Kay Vick, Jeff Walker Thomas, James Randall Hammack, Corey Glenn Holladay and John Tyler Anderson. | Photo courtesy of the Fayette County Jail 

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office have made five arrests related to various crimes following multiple investigations. 

Fayette was forever changed by a heartbreaking tragedy that occurred one summer night in 1971. On Wednesday, July 21, six-year-old Mary Ann Johnson was found dead. According to the Broadcaster newspaper, her unclothed body was discovered in a wooded area near the Spring Street Housing Project after a frantic search by local law enforcement. The incident cast a long shadow over the community, a sorrow that lingers even today.

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office is requesting the public’s assistance for any information regarding break-ins at three local churches. The burglaries have occurred over the past month. The churches that were targeted are all within the same geographical area on County Road 35. The investigation is ongoing and anyone with any information is urged to call the sheriff’s office at (205) 932-3205.

A defendant responsible for the murder of his former wife has been sentenced to serve two life sentences in prison, 24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Andy Hamlin announced.

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Alabama Drug Enforcement Task Force and the Berry Police Department, have charged two Fayette County residents in a fentanyl trafficking case.