A frantic, weekslong search came to an end on Friday after the body of a Colorado man was found in a wooded area , allowing the cops to charge one of his housemates with murder .
Johnny Rankin Morris, 46, was apprehended with a woman in Pearl River County, Mississippi, on Dec. 30, 2024, after fleeing Colorado for an unrelated crime.
He was then charged with the murder of his housemate, Stephen Walker, in El Paso County, Colorado, and with another unrelated killing in Park County.
The murder shocked the local community, with the cops finding large amounts of blood around the home, a sober living facility, from which both men went missing on Dec. 19, 2024 — the day Walker’s family reported his absence.
Morris and an alleged acquaintance, Hailey Cole, 43, were also reported missing but labeled “armed and dangerous” as fugitives. The former is now awaiting extradition to Colorado to face first-degree murder charges as well as tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence following the discovery of Walker’s remains.