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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Arrest Made in Former Coal Executive’s Death

(CN) - A West Virginia county sheriff said Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested in the death of a former coal company executive found shot in the cemetery where his wife is buried.

Mingo County Sheriff James Smith said Anthony Arriaga, 20, was being held on a homicide warrant in Ohioin connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old Bennett Hatfield.

Hatfield, who was president and CEO of Patriot Coal until last year, was CEO of International Coal Group when a 2006 explosion in northern West Virginia killed 12 of the company's miners.

Smith said Hatfield was fatally shot at Mountain View Memory Gardens, a cemetery in southern West Virginia's Mingo County. Hatfield's wife Debbie was buried in the cemetary after her death from cancer several years ago, according to published reports.

The sheriff's department is cuurently trying to arrange Arriaga's extradition to West Virginia.

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