John Harp, a 60-year-old White/Caucasian male, was found unresponsive on the night of February 3, 2021, at a residence on South Elm Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had visible lacerations and was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead; his body was later sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for autopsy. Though some memorial listings place the incident in Ward, investigators’ early accounts centered on the Little Rock address where he was discovered.
Detectives quickly determined that the attack had not occurred where Harp was found. According to authorities, he was assaulted earlier in Lonoke County and then transported to the Elm Street location, a sequence of events that helped shift the investigation from a city case to a county-led homicide inquiry. Details reported at the time indicated that a vehicle located at the scene—a sedan—was part of the developing timeline that moved the focus out toward rural Lonoke County.
Within hours of the discovery, investigators identified suspects and made arrests just before midnight on February 3. Deputies took Ricky Allen Williams, 54, and his mother, Willie Faye Thompson, 76, into custody at a home in the Butlerville area of Lonoke County. Williams was booked on charges including capital murder and possession of a firearm by certain persons, while Thompson was arrested on a felony count of hindering apprehension or prosecution. Both were held in the Lonoke County jail without bond as the case was turned over to county authorities.
Public summaries that followed marked Harp’s death date as February 3, 2021, and, in some listings, the place of death as Ward, Arkansas—reflecting the regional footprint of the investigation and the locations connected to Harp’s final movements. Community memorials recorded his name and age and noted the loss to violence, while incident trackers indexed the case to that date in central Arkansas.
