Published: November 17, 2009 12:41 pm      

2 found stabbed to death in rural Grenada County

JACKSON — The Grenada County sheriff says a retired police investigator and his caregiver were found stabbed to death Sunday in the former officer’s home in a rural community.

Sheriff Alton Strider said Monday that authorities were seeking a suspect and investigating whether the slayings might have been retaliation for work Jimmy Stauddy had done as a police officer.

Strider says the bodies of 69-year-old Stauddy and his sitter, Martha Stoker, who was in her 40s, were sent to Jackson for autopsies. The sheriff says Stoker helped care for Stauddy, who had been ill.

Strider says Stauddy’s wife returned from an out of town trip and found her husband and Stoker stabbed to death. The Stauddys’ home is in the Holcomb community west of Grenada.