The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Neosho County Sheriff’s Office announced an arrest connected to the death of Elaina Asprea, of Chanute, according to a news release from the KBI Thursday.
On Wednesday, Joseph R. Deluca, 37, was served an arrest warrant for second-degree murder at the Cumberland County Detention Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Deluca was already incarcerated at the jail on unrelated charges.
On Dec. 6 deputies from the Neosho County Sheriff’s Office were conducting a welfare check in rural Chanute after they received information from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, in North Carolina, that caused them concern for a woman who lived in Chanute. Deputies searched the property and located the deceased body of 47-year-old Asprea.
She was found next to a field, near the residence. Asprea was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Neosho County Sheriff’s Office requested KBI assistance. KBI agents and the Crime Scene Response Team responded to the scene to investigate.
Asprea’s boyfriend, Deluca, was arrested in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Dec. 5, on a Robeson County warrant for charges unrelated to this case.
