JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville man has admitted killing an acquaintance found beaten to death in Kentucky over the weekend, despite saying he has no memory of the episode, authorities said.
Joseph Bryan Capstraw, 20, was arrested Saturday morning on a murder charge after he led police to an address in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where they found the victim's body, according to police.
Investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy. But Officer John Thomas, spokesman for the Elizabethtown Police Department, said the woman had blunt force injuries and signs of strangulation.
Elizabethtown police said Thursday that through dental records, they were able identify the woman as 18-year-old Amber Robinson, who was originally from Florida. Investigators said it's unclear where she was last living.
Capstraw said he befriended the woman at the Rainbow Family Gathering, a counter-culture event held earlier this month at Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, and the pair left together, police said.
"Detectives are still trying to determine her connection to Capstraw, and how exactly they ended up in Elizabethtown," Thomas said in an email Tuesday.
Officers fielding a suspicious person call in Elizabethtown about 2 a.m. Saturday met with Capstraw, who showed them the victim's body, according to a copy of his arrest report.
Capstraw told police he "blacked out" after an argument with the victim, saying the next thing he knew, she was "badly beaten" and his hands were injured. The report said he confessed to the killing.
Capstraw, who has a criminal history in Jacksonville, was arrested May 2017 on an attempted murder charge after another man's throat was cut in Jacksonville Beach. That charge was later dropped.