COVINGTON, Ga. — Covington police detectives are in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Thursday trying to track down the two people who snatched a woman's purse, then ran over and killed her at a Walmart Monday.
Security camera video caught the violent robbery as it happened. It shows Marsha Johnson, 65, in the Covington Walmart parking lot as a man comes up from behind her and yanks her purse, knocking her off her feet. ;Police said the man climbed into a silver or grey Honda Accord with a female passenger and ran over Johnson four times.
"Initially, I don't think they realized she was behind the car," said Covington Police Captain Craig Treadwell. "But once the victim was initially struck, there was no way possible that they could not have known that she was underneath the vehicle."
Twenty-four hours later, an employee at the Koch Chicken Processing Plant in Chattanooga spotted Johnson's credit card on a sidewalk between the factory and the parking lot. ;Since the plant is a long way from an interstate, detectives believe someone in the plant knows who are the killers. ;Detectives spent the day at the plant, handing out fliers with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation sketches and photos of the suspects.
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Covington police think the two are the same people who conducted a violent purse snatching outside a Family Dollar in St. George, South Carolina, a week earlier. ;That victim survived.
Security camera video caught the two people attempting to use that victim's credit card at a Walmart in Waltersboro, South Carolina, 30 minutes after the robbery. ;The two bear a striking similarity to the two people in the GBI sketch, right down to the fact both women have purple hair, and both drive a silver or grey Honda Accord.
"That's why we're in Tennessee, distributing out those filers," said Treadwell. "We feel like somebody in that area knows these suspects, and they'll know them on sight."
Crimestoppers and Walmart are offering a $10,000 reward for an arrest and conviction in this case.
Johnson's funeral is scheduled for Friday morning.