Police: Artist whose body was found had been stabbed

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MGN Online

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) – Police say a St. Augustine artist whose body was found buried at rural northeast Florida home had been stabbed to death.

The St. Augustine Record reports that the victim was 46-year-old Jordie Hudson, who was last seen alive April 9 at a bar.

Police have arrested 39-year-old John Branson on suspicion of second-degree murder after surveillance cameras caught images of Hudson walking on a street with a man.

The two are seen struggling, with the man leaving and later returning with another woman and putting something in the rear of his car.

Also arrested was 29-year-old Janelle-Linn Thomas, Branson’s girlfriend, who is suspected of being a lookout while Branson moved Hudson’s body.

Hudson was an experimental artist whose art was shown at a St. Augustine gallery in 2012.

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