(MOBILE, Ala.) Aug. 13 -- Detectives investigating the case against Anthony Hopkins spoke in court Wednesday about information they gathered.
A Mobile Police Homicide Detective, recalling his interview with Hopkins' 19-year-old stepdaughter, says the teen told him before Hopkins stuffed the body of his wife, Arletha, in a freezer, he dumped her body in the woods in Semmes.
Then, according to the testimony, he had the daughter, who was 15 at the time, help him retrieve the body, take it to Jackson, Ala., in a trailer and bury the mother in a shallow grave behind a church.
The detective said Hopkins told the teen he wasn't "at peace" with having the body there. So, according to the testimony, Hopkins and the girl drove back to Jackson, unearthed her mother's remains and brought them back to Mobile. That's when authorities say Hopkins stored them in a freezer.
"The timeline is sketchy as to how long she was buried, and the final autopsy will tell us the amount of decomposition of her body, and we will have a better estimate after we get the final autopsy," Mobile County Prosecutor Ashley Rich, following Hopkins preliminary hearing said.
Investigators claim Hopkins killed his wife in December 2004 after Arletha discovered him molesting his stepdaughter. The detective testifying Wednesday said the girl heard her mother scream, "Call the cops, your dad is trying to kill me."
Hopkins also faces several sexual abuse charges against the 19-year-old. Prosecutors say it's been going on since she was 11 and that Hopkins, a minister, used a Bible story to justify the relationship.
Rich said, "The 19-year-old stated that when he first ... maintained sexual contact with her, or first had sexual contact with her, he explained it was normal and he described to her and told in detail the story of Lot from the Bible."
Lot is a character in the Book of Genesis. His daughters got him drunk and seduced him in order to carry on the family name.
Investigators say the 19-year-old stepdaughter is pregnant with Hopkins' child. His case is now headed to a grand jury.
