FULTON COUNTY, Ark. — A woman is being charged with first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and a felony firearms charge after a man was found brutally murdered on June 1, 2023.

The body of David Southerland was found at the gate of a neighbor with a gunshot wound in the back, barbed wire around his neck, evidence of a severe beating on his head and burns on his body.

The neighbor told authorities he had last seen Southerland leaving his house following a woman he was friends with: Stacie Hickman.

Hickman had borrowed the neighbor’s truck and asked Southerland to follow her in his white Dodge Caliber, according to the neighbor’s statement in the probable cause statement.

With Southerland presumably murdered and his car nowhere to be found, authorities reported his vehicle as stolen. A Salem police officer found the car occupied by Stacie Hickman on June 2 sitting in front of an Arkansas State Highway Department building on Highway 62.

Hickman was arrested for theft and held in custody at the Fulton County Jail. On June 3, Hickman was interviewed by Fulton County investigators.

After she was read her Miranda rights, Hickman confessed to shooting and burning David Southerland’s body. She told investigators that Southerland was trying to get some land that she was supposed to get, according to the PC statement.