BEAUMONT, Texas — A man and woman could soon face trial after the body of a 16-year-old girl was found in a mobile home in southwestern Jefferson County, near Fannett.
Chelsea Shipp, 25, and Cody Arnold, 22, are charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of Katelynn Nicole Stone. Both were indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on Wednesday.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Arnold feared Stone was pregnant and told Shipp he could get in trouble. Shipp is accused of shooting Stone while she was asleep in a mobile home near Fannett.
Arnold was arrested on March 27, 2022 after deputies found Stone's body in his mobile home. Shipp was arrested on March 31, 2022.
Shipp and Stone are currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $1 million bonds.
Related: Woman wanted in shooting death of 16-year-old Vidor girl arrested north of Austin early Thursday
Deputies believe Stone was murdered March 26, 2022.
On March 27, 2022, a woman called Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies about information regarding a murder. Deputies met the woman, and she told them she was friends with Shipp and knew Arnold.
The woman told deputies that the day before Stone's body was found, Shipp called and asked if she could borrow her car because she, “had some things she needed to do," according to a probable cause affidavit.
The woman said yes and met up with Shipp later around noon. When she swapped cars with Shipp, Arnold was with her.
Shipp returned the car the next day, March 27, 2022.
At some point, Shipp allegedly admitted to getting rid of Stone telling the woman in part, "I shot her,” while making a shooting motion with two fingers, according to the affidavit.
A few hours later, the woman called her father in law, Chambers County Constable Brad Moon. Moon told not touch her car because it would have to searched.
Court records show, a detective went to Arnold's mobile home located in 14000 block of Kolbs Corner that same day. Arnold gave the detectives consent to search his home and bedroom.
The detective found Stone's body on a bed and shell casing on a pillow. Arnold told detectives that the body was Stone's, and that Shipp had shot Stone while she was asleep, according to the affidavit.
Arnold said Stone had recently taken an at-home pregnancy test, and it came back positive.
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