LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Neighbors along Arling Avenue in south Louisville say they suspected something fishy was going on with a couple who lived there. Then they started smelling a foul odor, but it wasn't until Tuesday that they found out that that couple allegedly killed their roommate and hid him in the basement.
Two lawn chairs sit in the front yard of an inconspicuous house on a quiet street in south Louisville, but police say three people lived here, until one was murdered, and it's what was in the basement that has neighbors stunned. "Everything's been pretty much calm and for this to happen, it's scary,” said Becky Pitts, who lives on Arling Ave.
Police say a friend of Dennis Hall and Heather Barringer tipped the authorities off to a murder. Around 1am Tuesday police knocked on the door of 1404 Arling Avenue. "They were sitting there watching television. Nothing out of the ordinary,” said Lt. Barry Wilkerson of LMPD Homicide.
Except that Hall and Barringer's roommate was dead and decomposing in the basement. Police say the couple lived here with 53-year-old Jeffrey Bishop, and they say the couple strangled Bishop to death two or three weeks ago.
Bishop had given them a place to stay for the past few months and eventually supported them financially. Police found Bishop's body hidden and wrapped in bags and carpet. "They were arguing over whether they could utilize his money he was receiving from the government. They basically murdered him at that point, and put him in the basement in the hopes of still collecting his money,” said Wilkerson.
Neighbors say they started suspecting something was wrong because people were scurrying around the basement and just this past weekend they could really start to smell a foul odor.
Police say the couple hoped they could live off of the victim’s money after his death. Hall is a sex offender and has been arrested for drugs and theft. This is the first arrest for his girlfriend, Heather Barringer.
