Women Charged With Missing Lindsay Man's Murder Appear In Court

By Heather Hope, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- In the investigation surrounding the murder of a man whose body was found last week in Seminole County, OSBI agents arrested Adena Beasley and Jessica Cornwell last Friday and now, their story is taking a turn.

A judge charged both women at the Seminole County Courthouse Friday afternoon for willfully desecrating the body of 32-year-old Nathan Blankenship. He died from a stab wound to the chest, and now, both women accused of his death are pointing the fingers at each other over who stabbed him.

Two Oklahoma City cousins came in the courtroom handcuffed. Both were charged with mishandling the body of Blankenship. He went missing on Feb. 2.

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"They're both being held without bond here in Seminole County, which is the correct decision by the judge," said Christopher Anderson, Seminole County Assistant District Attorney. "They're both dangerous according to the facts that are in the affidavit."

A Seminole County Court affidavit says 32-year-old Adena Beasley was Nathan Blankenship's girlfriend. Her cousin, 33-year-old Jessica Cornwell, drove Beasley and Blankenship to her father's home in Madill, Okla. to pick up money to pay off drug debt.

On the road in Marshall County is where is Beasley says Blankenship "freaked out" and the two argued, and he tried to hop out the car before Cornwell stabbed him.

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But Cornell gave a different account. She says she was driving her blue Tahoe on I-35 near Wayne, Okla. when Beasley and Blankenship got in a fight, and he picked up a filet knife that Cornwell had lying on the car floor.

She says he started swinging the knife at Beasley, Cornwell got cut on her hand, and Beasley grabbed Blankenship from behind and stabbed him in the chest. She says Blankenship bled to death in a matter of minutes, and Beasley says she kept telling Cornwell to take him to the hospital.

Cornwell says Beasley convinced her to dump Blankenship's 250-pound body behind a mobile home on NS 3590 off Highway 59 in Wewoka.

OSBI officers later arrested Beasley and Cornwell in Oklahoma City. Then Cornwell led Marshall County deputies to the Blankenship's body, which was found, rolled in a piece of carpet, behind the mobile home.

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"At this point we're waiting on Marshall County to see what they're going to charge in that county," Anderson says. "And what's most likely going to happen is that they're going to be picked up for murder one at some point."

The one count of desecrating a human corpse that both women were charged with could give them up to seven years in prison or an $8,000 fine or both.

OSBI detectives are still in the early stages of their investigation. When they are finished, they will hand off reports to the Marshall County District Attorney's Office, who will then present the women with more charges.