Carrollton -- One year and a half later, local authorities arrest a third person believed to have had illegal involvement in the disappearance and murder of University Of West Georgia student, Marcelle Elliot.

Defendant number one, Farrah Strength is serving a life sentence for murder. As Newstalk 1330 WLBB reported Wednesday, Joshua Clay pled guilty Tuesday, to lesser charges. Clay’s plea and avoidance of trial set the stage for the third arrest--- that of Farrah Strength’s mother, Christine Smith Strength.

Carrollton P.D. Sgt. Shannon Cantrell says authorities arrested Smith-Strength on charges of concealing the death of another, tampering with evidence and making false statements to police. “We waited until after (Clay's) plea because we were going to have to use Christine as a witness in the case (against Clay),” he says.
 
“During the initial investigations we uncovered a lot of evidence and had it sent to the crime lab for testing,” Cantrell says. “We got a DNA match back that linked the mother to one of the pieces of evidence that we recovered in her house.”
 
Cantrell says that Smith-Strength finally admitted that she had knowledge within two days after the murder that her daughter had killed Elliott. He says if she had shared with police what she knew earlier, it is likely that the victim’s body would have been found sooner.