A man wanted in connection with the discovery of a body in Woodbine, Georgia, has been captured in Indiana, News4JAX learned Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Camden County deputies were en route to the Wayne County jail in Indiana to pick up Jason Michael Palmer, 45, of Littleton, Massachusetts.
Palmer was arrested by federal marshals and the Indiana State Police in Cambridge City, Indiana, after receiving a tip from Camden County deputies that he was in a semi that was parked at a gas station at the intersection of State Road 1 and Interstate 70.
Palmer was wanted on several felony charges, including murder in Woodbine, where a woman’s body was discovered near an exit ramp off Interstate 95 last month.
On Oct. 8, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about the body of a woman that was located on adjacent property north of Roadie’s Chevron truck stop at Exit 14 in Woodbine. The body was in a wooded area off a service road north of the truck stop. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Camden County sheriff’s investigators were able to identify the woman as Jessica Goodrich, 46, of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Camden County investigators determined Goodrich had been a passenger in a long-distance trucker’s vehicle. Palmer was identified as the truck driver, according to investigators. Palmer was detained until Camden County investigators could continue the investigation in Indiana.
He was then arrested several days ago and charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and concealing the death of the Goodrich.
News4JAX also spoke with Goodrich’s younger sister, Pamela Shays, who said Goodrich and Palmer were in an on-and-off again relationship.
“It was an abusive relationship between both of them,” Shays said.
Her sister in Massachusetts said that days before the discovery, Palmer contacted her and said he and Goodrich were having problems.
“He told me that he was going to put my sister on a plane and send her back home,” Shays said.
Goodrich’s sister said Palmer also contacted the victim’s adult son.
“He told my nephew that he put my sister in a hotel, and he booked a train ticket for my sister to send her back home,” Shays said.
Goodrich’s family said she never came back to Massachusetts and Palmer stopped communicating with them just days before her body was located. Her sister says detectives flew up to Massachusetts to speak with the family and that’s when investigators learned about the relationship between Goodrich and Palmer.
According to her obituary, Goodrich was a mother of three and a grandmother.