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Sheriff: Woman found in Belews Lake died from head injuries
Photo provided by the Stokes County Sheriff's Office
Joshua Allen Bolen
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Published: June 8, 2009
Updated: 06/08/2009 10:47 am
The woman whose body was pulled from Belews Lake last week died from head injuries, Stokes County Sheriff Mike Joyce said this morning.
The body of Ashley Denise Ward, 24, of Mount Airy, was pulled from a shallow part of the lake on Tuesday.
Joshua Allen Bolen, 25, Ward's boyfriend and the father of her toddler child, was arrested in Richmond, Va., yesterday and charged with murder in connection with Ward's death.
Joyce said there was a fire on May 31 at a mobile home where Bolen lived on Stewart Road in Walnut Cove. The Stokes County fire marshal determined the fire was set. The home was unlivable after the fire , and Bolen did not stay there after the mobile home burned.
"That same day we got a missing person's report on her (Ward)," Joyce said. Family members told authorities they believed she had gone to a laundry in the Walnut Cove area.
Joyce said an autopsy was not yet completed and he was unable to say if it appeared that Ward had been dead since the time of the fire.
Bolen is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina. Additional counts of second-degree arson and burning personal property are expected to be filed against Bolen, Joyce said.
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