Authorities say evidence at the wooded scene showed that one victim was being moved when the other person suffered a fatal heart attack.

LANETT, Ala. — A pickup truck left running beside a rural Chambers County road led deputies into the woods, where they found Jessica Folds and her boyfriend, Daniel Robbins, dead only a short distance apart. Authorities now say Robbins strangled Folds and suffered a fatal heart attack while trying to move her body into the remote area.

The June 10 discovery began as a call about a vehicle parked along County Road 86, not as a reported homicide. Deputies arrived shortly after 12:20 p.m. and found the truck unattended, with its driver’s door open and its tailgate lowered. A search of the nearby ground led them to the two bodies. Evidence later gathered at the scene, combined with autopsy findings, allowed investigators to reconstruct what they believe happened before the vehicle and the couple were found. Folds, 47, lived in the Lanett area and was the mother of three sons. Robbins, 44, was from Macon, Georgia, and had been in a romantic relationship with her, according to District Attorney Mike Segrest and news reports citing local authorities. Investigators concluded that Folds died from strangulation. They believe Robbins killed her elsewhere, transported her to the wooded location and began dragging her away from the truck before his heart stopped.

The physical condition of the scene gave investigators their first visible path through the case. The truck’s engine was still running, suggesting that whoever drove it there had not planned to leave it in that condition. The open door and lowered tailgate indicated that someone had been unloading or moving something from the vehicle. Drag marks in the dirt continued from the truck toward the place where deputies found Folds and Robbins, officials said. The marks became important evidence after the autopsies established that the two had died from different causes.

Folds was found with her arms extended above her head, according to Chambers County Sheriff Jeff Nelson. Robbins was nearby in a fetal position. A person who had noticed the abandoned-looking truck also saw the figures in the woods but initially thought they might be mannequins, Nelson told a television station. Deputies who searched the area determined that both people were dead. The sheriff’s office then requested help from the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and the Chambers County Coroner’s Office.

At first, authorities publicly described the matter only as a death investigation. The sheriff’s office said the bodies of a white woman and a white man had been located near the vehicle and would be taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Officials withheld their names while identification work was completed and relatives were notified. That initial caution reflected how little was known from the roadside discovery alone. Investigators could see an unusual scene, but the causes and order of the deaths still required forensic examination.

The autopsies changed the direction of the investigation. Forensic findings showed that Folds had been strangled, Segrest said. Robbins’ death was attributed to a heart attack. When investigators compared those findings with the truck, its open tailgate, the drag marks and the positions of the bodies, they concluded that Robbins was attempting to dispose of Folds’ body when he collapsed. Segrest said the bodies were found beside one another because Robbins died during that effort, before he could move her farther into the woods.

Authorities have described the wooded property as a disposal site rather than the place where Folds was killed. Nelson said investigators did not believe the fatal assault occurred where deputies found the bodies. That distinction leaves an important part of the timeline unresolved. Officials have not publicly identified the location where Folds was strangled, the exact time of her death or how long her body was in the truck before it reached County Road 86. The evidence released so far describes the final stage of the case more clearly than the events that came before it.

Segrest said investigators believed the killing involved a domestic incident, but authorities have not released a specific motive. They have not described an argument, identified a witness to the assault or disclosed whether anyone had contact with Folds or Robbins shortly before their deaths. Public reports also have not established how long the two had been dating. Those gaps are significant because Robbins’ death means prosecutors cannot question him, file a criminal case against him or present evidence against him at trial.

The investigation therefore depends heavily on forensic findings, the physical scene and any records or witness information gathered by state and county authorities. Investigators may review communications, travel information and other evidence to establish where the couple had been and how they reached the rural site, though officials have not publicly detailed any such records. The conclusions announced by the district attorney represent the investigative finding about responsibility; they were not tested through a prosecution because Robbins died before an arrest could occur.

Robbins’ medical history provided additional context for the conclusion about his death. His former wife told a television station that he had a preexisting heart condition. Authorities have not released a full medical history or said whether physical exertion, stress or another factor contributed to the timing of the heart attack. The official finding is limited to the cause of death and the conclusion that he collapsed while moving Folds. No evidence released by investigators suggests that another person was present at the disposal site when Robbins died. Folds’ obituary described her as a woman whose work and life took her to several places in the Auburn-Opelika area. Her relatives remembered her for what they called a “heart of gold,” her love for others and a smile that brightened the lives around her. She was survived by three sons and other family members. Those details placed a fuller life behind a case that first became public through the stark description of two unidentified people found in the woods.

The circumstances also created an unusual legal ending. Had Robbins survived, the evidence described by authorities could have led prosecutors to consider a homicide charge and charges connected to moving or concealing a body. Because he died at the scene, no court will determine criminal guilt, and no trial will produce testimony about motive or the events leading to Folds’ death. Authorities can still complete an investigative report and formally classify the deaths, but the criminal process ended before it could begin.

The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation have continued to seek information from anyone who may know about the couple’s movements or the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Officials have not announced another suspect, and the available evidence has led them to identify Robbins as the person responsible for strangling Folds. Questions remain about where the assault occurred and what preceded it, but investigators say the abandoned truck and the trail from it explain how both bodies came to be found together.

Author note: Last updated July 26, 2026.