Investigators say a Rusk County man fled to Arkansas after his wife was found dead in their home.

MOUNT ENTERPRISE, Texas — A welfare check at a home outside Mount Enterprise on March 18 led deputies to the body of Amanda Thompson and set off a cross-state search that ended that night with the arrest of her husband, Scott Raymond Thompson, authorities say.

Authorities say the case now sits at the charging stage, with Scott Thompson, 47, jailed in Rusk County on a murder count after extradition from Arkansas. Investigators say the key early evidence came from a relative’s phone call, deputies’ forced entry into the house and records tracing the suspect’s vehicle as officers in Texas and Arkansas moved to find him.

The investigation began around 2 p.m. on March 18, when Rusk County deputies were sent to the 5900 block of County Road 3122 for a welfare check. According to an affidavit, the caller was Thompson’s uncle, who told dispatchers Scott Thompson had called and said “he had killed his wife with an axe” and left her in the hall. The uncle also said Thompson asked him to pick up the couple’s children from school and take them elsewhere so they would not return home and see their mother’s body. When deputies reached the house, they reported seeing blood through a back-door window and entered because of what the affidavit described as exigent circumstances.

Inside, deputies found a dead woman lying near the back door with injuries that investigators said were consistent with sharp-force trauma to the back of her head. Authorities later identified her as Amanda Lynn Thompson. Sheriff John Wayne Valdez said the victim was found after repeated announcements at the house went unanswered. An autopsy was ordered, and early reporting from local authorities described the death in preliminary terms as blunt-force trauma before later court records laid out the axe allegation in more detail. Investigators have not publicly described a known motive, and the available records do not say exactly when on March 18 the killing took place, only that deputies were called that afternoon and soon began looking for Scott Thompson after discovering the scene.

By then, the case had already shifted from a death investigation to a regional search. A BOLO for a black Acura with Texas plates went out to surrounding agencies, and officials said license plate readers tracked the vehicle as it moved across Texas and into Arkansas. According to Arkansas and Texas reports, troopers stopped the car on Highway 7 near Moccasin Gap, north of Dover in Pope County, at about 8 p.m. Arkansas State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force took Thompson into custody without incident. That timeline compressed the central events of the case into roughly a single afternoon and evening: a family member’s call, the discovery at the house, the issuance of alerts and a roadside arrest in another state.

The procedural case moved quickly after the arrest. Thompson was first held in Arkansas while Texas authorities prepared to bring him back to Rusk County. He was extradited and returned to East Texas at about 6:30 p.m. on April 1, according to local reports. Court records cited by local outlets say he was charged with murder, while Law&Crime described the count as first-degree murder based on the affidavit and records it reviewed. Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Jana Enloe later set bond at $1.5 million. Public reporting has also said Thompson was expected to be arraigned after his return, though court officials had not publicly released a fuller schedule in the reports available at the time.

The facts made public so far come mostly from law enforcement statements and court paperwork, leaving many parts of the family’s recent history out of view. The children were at school when the welfare check was requested, and the uncle’s role in alerting authorities became one of the most striking details in the affidavit. The house sat in the Brachfield area of Rusk County, a rural stretch where sheriff’s deputies, state police and federal task force officers all became part of the response before the day was over. As the case moves forward, the public record remains centered on a short list of fixed points: the call for help, the body in the hallway area, the black Acura on the road and the murder charge now pending in East Texas.

For now, Thompson remains in the Rusk County jail, and the next public milestone is the continued court process in Rusk County as prosecutors move the murder case ahead.

Author note: Last updated April 23, 2026.