Man sought in wife's death arrested

GREENVILLE, Ohio - A man suspected in the death of his wife has been arrested in Las Vegas, a Clarke County sheriff's dispatcher said Thursday.

A dispatcher said James William Taylor, 22, of Greenville, was apprehended Thursday by Las Vegas police. The couple's 2-year-old son, Dillon James Taylor, was with his father and was not harmed, said the dispatcher, who declined to give her name.

Taylor is a suspect in the death of his wife, 22-year-old Lori A. Taylor, Darke County Sheriff Toby Spencer said Wednesday.

Investigators were called to the couple's trailer in Greenville on Monday when a baby sitter called to say Lori Taylor had not dropped her son off as scheduled. Deputies checked the outside of the trailer Monday, but found nothing unusual, Spencer said. When relatives filed a missing person report Tuesday night, deputies forced entry into the trailer and found the woman's body in the bathtub.

The Taylors lived together in the trailer until about two weeks ago, when a Darke County warrant was issued for James Taylor's arrest for failure to appear on a nonsupport charge.

Investigators said that Lori Taylor's co-worker overheard a telephone conversation on April 1 in which James Taylor allegedly threatened to beat her. The co-worker asked her to call when she returned home, but the call never came.

Preliminary reports indicated the cause of death might have been blunt trauma to the head, but an autopsy was planned, police said.

Taylor was convicted of six counts of forgery and receiving stolen property in Miami County in 1997. He also had a forgery conviction in Darke County and was on probation in Miami County for failure to pay child support.

Greenville is about 30 miles northwest of Dayton.