Trucker Took Off With Cyclist's Body After Plowing Victim With His Pickup

A man from Fort Smith, Arkansas was arrested on Friday, Feb. 18, after he was found with the body of a cyclist that he reportedly ran over in a cut-and-dry hit-and-run incident in the area.

James Ray Jones, a 42-year-old man, faces charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash after he hit a cyclist while he was allegedly driving home with his truck. He took the body of the cyclist and left the scene quickly, according to NBC affiliate 5News.

The local police officers only were notified of the incident over 12 hours later, when they found an unidentified body part in the area where Jones hit the cyclist.

“Fort Smith police were made aware that a human body part was discovered near the roadway in the area of the accident,” according to a statement. “Officers responded and confirmed the body part was human and that an accident had occurred.”

Because of finding that body part, police officers were prompted to review the surveillance footage of the area and identified Jones as the one who struck the cyclist, the New York Post reported.

“Area surveillance footage confirmed that a pedestrian on a bicycle was struck by a pickup truck in the westbound lane of Grand Avenue,” the Fort Smith Police Department said in a statement. “42-year-old James Ray Jones was developed as a suspect.”

Officers then came to Jones’s home, where they found the truck that he hit the cyclist with inside his backyard. Officers reported that the body of the cyclist was still in the back of the truck, after which they arrested Jones.

Jones was interviewed by police officers regarding the incident, during which he gave them a full confession of the crime, admitting fault to the hit-and-run as well as the killing of the cyclist. He is currently in Sebastian County Jail as the police continue to investigate the case.

The identity of the cyclist has not yet been released as local police officers attempt to find the next-of-kin of the deceased biker.