Mother, daughter accused of burning woman's body in South St. Pete alley
The body of Elizabeth Olmstead (right) was found in a dumpster in St. Pete. A mother and daughter have been arrested in the case.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg police have arrested a second woman for allegedly helping her daughter burn the body of a 31-year-old Pinellas County woman.
Cree Worley, 30, was arrested Tuesday and charged with abuse of a body. Investigators said Worley was driving her mother’s white Ford pickup truck at the time.
Thursday, Worley’s mother, 64-year-old Julie Curran was arrested and now faces the same charge as her daughter.
Investigators say it started back on August 18, just after midnight. Firefighters were called to put out a fire in a dumpster in the alley behind Emerson Avenue South near 29th Street.
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Once the flames were out, they found a "severely burned" body, which took four days to identify as 31-year-old Heather Elizabeth Olmstead.
They also found a cell phone near the body.
Police said surveillance video has been key in the investigation. One surveillance video showed the white pickup truck pulling away from the fire. Another surveillance video showed the license plate of the truck, leading them to Worley and Curran.
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Another video shows the pickup truck and a dark-color GMC vehicle pulling up to a home on 10th Avenue S minutes before the fire.
Police now say they believe the GMC vehicle and the cell phone found with the burned body belong to the same man, who had not been named as a person of interest or suspect in the case, as of Friday.
Investigators say the person who lives at the home on 10th Ave. S told them Worley and Curran came there to buy drugs. More surveillance video shows the person put an item into the bed of the pickup truck. Police said they believe the item was a gas can.
Finally, surveillance video shows the GMC vehicle driving in the area near the fire two minutes before it was reportedly set.
As the investigation continues, Curran and Worley remain in jail in Pinellas County.
Authorities have not released Olmstead's exact cause of death.