Donnie Lee AbernathyA Centre, Ala., man is being held in the slaying of three women whose bodies were found earlier this week near the Round Mountain community.
Cherokee County, Ala., Sheriff Jeff Shaver said deputies were headed to a home on County Road 656 just after midnight Monday when they encountered Donnie Lee Abernathy.
Abernathy, 38, led deputies on a pursuit and collided with a patrol car before crashing and being taken into custody, Shaver said in a statement.
Shaver said a woman who was abducted from the Round Mountain residence was found inside the car Abernathy was driving. The woman was treated for injuries at a local hospital and released.
At the home, located about 15 miles south of Fort Payne, deputies found the bodies. Details about Abernathy's connection to the victims were not immediately disclosed.
Abernathy is charged with capital murder, attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree criminal mischief and attempting to elude police, authorities said.
In a bond hearing Tuesday, Judge Wesley Mobley ordered Abernathy held without bond on the murder charge and set a $250,000 bond on the kidnapping charge and another $250,000 bond on the attempted murder charge, according to authorities.
An Alabama Law Enforcement Agency accident report said the injured woman was identified as 25-year-old Cedar Bluff resident Jerrica Hamilton, according to a report on WEIS radio's website.
The slain victims were identified by coroner Jeremy Deaton as Sylvia Sue Duffe, 71; Clara Lee Edwards, 68; and Pamela Collette O'Shel, 49, all of Centre, WEIS reported.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.