Man Living In Camper Beside Batesville Mobile Home Charged With Murdering Two Women Found Beaten To Death In 2025; Bond $1 Million

BATESVILLE, Ark. – A man who was living in a camper beside a mobile home where two women were found beaten to death in April 2025 was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder, 18 months after deputies discovered the bodies.

Timothy John Neal, 39, is accused of killing Teresa Owens and Patricia Anderson at 1666 Old Camp Road, outside Batesville, on or about April 8, 2025, according to a criminal information filed in Independence County Circuit Court by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kellye Barber. A judge set his bond at $1 million. Both counts are Class Y felonies punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison.

Arkansas State Police identified the victims in April 2025 as Teresa Owens Nelson, 53, and Patricia Anderson, 71, KAIT reported at the time.

The case began April 15, 2025, when a woman asked the Independence County Sheriff’s Office to check on Anderson because she had not heard from her in a week, according to Detective Bobby Tate’s probable-cause affidavit. Sgt. Zach Spohr and Deputy Joe Shaw noticed a foul smell outside the single-wide mobile home, found the front door unlocked and went in.

They found one decomposing body in a bed in the east bedroom, covered with blankets, a cellphone on a charging cord lying across the body. A second body was on the kitchen floor, the affidavit says.

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Deputies then cleared three campers on the property. In the westernmost one, they found Neal, who told them he did not know anyone had died and that he had last had contact with the women about three days earlier. He identified the dead as Anderson and Owens, the home’s only occupants, the affidavit says.

Two days later, the state medical examiner told Tate that both women died of blunt-force trauma to the head. A search warrant affidavit filed with the case says investigators were looking for “a hammer or similar weapon that could cause the injuries sustained by the victims.”

Neal agreed to an interview at the sheriff’s office after being read his rights, the affidavit says. He denied any involvement, said he had been living in the camper for about a week and said he had not seen the women for three days because he had been asleep the entire time. He told the detective the camper had no running water or electricity and that he showered inside the mobile home.

Investigators pulled a water-usage report for the address from the Rock-Moore Public Water Authority. It showed “a large spike in water usage” from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 13, 2025, after which usage returned to normal, the affidavit says.

Data extracted from Owens’ phone showed constant texting and Facebook Messenger conversations with several people until about 2:30 p.m. on April 8, 2025, then nothing, the affidavit says. Bank records obtained by search warrant showed the last transactions on both women’s accounts on April 7. Investigators concluded the women were killed on April 8.

The affidavit also lays out Neal’s path to the property. Court records showed he had been on the waiting list for a bed at the Arkansas State Hospital in connection with an Independence County District Court case. He sat in the county jail until July 31, 2024, receiving mental health treatment he “was not compliant or cooperative” with, before he was released into Owens’ custody, the affidavit says.

While he waited for a hospital bed, a court ordered him to attend treatment at Arisa Health. He missed multiple appointments, and at one he did attend, on Sept. 11, 2024, he “became angry and threatening to the therapist,” the affidavit says. He was scheduled for an appointment at Arisa Health in Searcy at 1 p.m. on April 8, 2025, the day investigators believe the women died, and did not show up.

On Aug. 19, 2026, deputies took Neal to the sheriff’s office for an interview with Arkansas State Police Investigator Mike McNeill. Asked why he had moved to the camper, Neal said he had wanted to but could not because the lights did not work, then said he ran an extension cord from the house. When McNeill pointed out that no cord had been found and asked about a burned candle on the camper’s stove, Neal said the candle was what he used for light, the affidavit says.

Neal told McNeill the last time he spoke with Owens was when he woke up from sleeping on the couch in the mobile home’s living room. Asked about the April 8 appointment he missed, he admitted arguing with Owens about going, saying he believed it concerned an old driving-on-a-suspended-license charge, according to the affidavit.

The sheriff’s office asked the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division for help with the case in April 2025. Search warrants were served on the mobile home, the camper, phones and the women’s accounts at Citizens Bank and FNBC Bank, according to the returns filed Wednesday.

Neal has been in the Independence County jail since April 25, 2025, 10 days after the bodies were found, according to the jail roster, which lists a criminal contempt charge along with the new murder count. His next court date is Oct. 27 in Independence County Circuit Court. The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Tim Weaver. Under the bond order, Neal would have to stay within the Sixteenth Judicial District, stay away from victims and witnesses and submit to drug testing if he is released.

The affidavit does not say how Neal knew the two women or why Owens took custody of him in 2024. A charge is an accusation, and Neal is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.