On Monday evening, December 23, law enforcement officials were called to a home on Broadway Street in Mansfield to do a welfare check.
Upon entering the home, authorities discovered a woman, now identified as Melinda Kaye Rogers, 57, dead.
Jordana Rogers, Melinda’s daughter, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is currently being held in a Nacogdoches County detention center in Texas.
The investigation has been turned over to the Arkansas State Police, who issued the following statement:
The Arkansas State Police is investigating the death of a 57 year old Sebastian County woman. The body of Melinda Rogers was discovered about 5:10 PM yesterday (December 23rd) in her home at 1009 Broadway Street in Mansfield. A Mansfield police officer and a family relative discovered the body. Evidence found in the home is leading investigators to believe Rogers was murdered.
Local authorities have requested Special Agents of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division to supervise the investigation.
A late afternoon telephone call yesterday from a Texas sheriff’s department to the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Department in Fort Smith prompted Mansfield Police to check the wellbeing of Rogers. The arrest of a woman in Nacogdoches County, Texas and information developed in Texas prompted the phone call to Arkansas authorities.
Rogers’ body is being transported to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory to determine the manner and cause of death.
