Ex-boyfriend arrested in 27-year-old dismemberment

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - Cold case detectives have arrested a 71-year-old Needles man for the dismemberment killing of his live-in girlfriend nearly three decades ago.

Jimmy Joe Cox was booked Wednesday for investigation of murder in the 1982 death of 24-year-old Carol Spearman, whose hand and head were found in the Colorado River near the desert home they shared along the California-Arizona border.

Investigators say a day after the couple were seen arguing in a tavern, a severed hand was found wrapped in a plastic bag along the banks of the Colorado near the Topock Bridge. Her head was found nearby a year later.

The San Bernardino sheriff's cold case team reopened the Spearman case last year and witness interviews and a reexamination of evidence led to the arrest of Cox.