ATLANTA - Authorities say an elderly Ohio woman whose body was found earlier this month near a Georgia cotton field died of blunt force trauma.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Friday announced the cause of death for 85-year-old Gladis Russell. GBI says Russell's body will likely be returned to Ohio next week.
The body of Russell's husband, 84-year-old Richard Russell, was found in late February in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Samuel K. Littleton II is suspected in the couple's disappearance.
Littleton, 37, has been charged in the stabbing death of his girlfriend's 26-year-old daughter, whose body was found in the basement of the home in Bellefontaine, Ohio he had purchased from the Russells in 2009.
Littleton was arrested in February in Princeton, W.Va. He hasn't been charged in the Russells' disappearance.