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VietnameseGriffin: ‘We will continue to build on this momentum—supporting authorities, introducing new resources and technology, and helping bring answers to these important cases’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after the identity of a victim in a Mississippi County cold case was confirmed to be Charles Benjamin Rhoades:
“On June 23, 1990, the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office reported finding a male body on the banks of the Mississippi River. Due to the stage of decomposition, the identity of the body could not be determined at the time.
“On June 18, 2024, I established a new unit investigating cold cases. This case was one of the first cold cases we took on. My office contacted the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office and offered to provide assistance and new state-of-the-art DNA testing on the remains. Sheriff Dale Cook welcomed our assistance in the case, and the case was reopened.
“After the Arkansas State Crime Lab sent DNA samples to Othram Labs, Othram ran the sample through a genealogy database and received a potential family match. My Cold Case Unit contacted Rhoades’s daughter, who confirmed that her father was missing and gave the special agent permission to collect a sample of her DNA. On September 25, the DNA test kit was collected, and on October 29, Othram Labs contacted the Cold Case Unit to confirm that the skeletal remains were a positive match for Rhoades. My agents immediately notified the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office and the family.
“I would like to commend the exceptional work of the agents assigned to my Cold Case Unit for their work on this case. I especially would like to thank the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office for allowing us to assist them and for reopening this case. This marks our first identification in a cold case since the creation of my Cold Case Unit. We will continue to build on this momentum—supporting authorities, introducing new resources and technology, and helping bring answers to these important cases. My prayers are with Mr. Rhoades’ family, and I hope this discovery will give them some closure.”
Sheriff Cook added the following statement:
“The investigation into Mr. Rhoades’ death continues. Anyone with any information about Mr. Rhoades, his disappearance, or his death are encouraged to contact the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office at (870) 658-2242 or our tip line at (870) 658-7024.
“The Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Attorney General’s Office, Arkansas State Crime Lab, and Othram for giving a name to a 35-year-old mystery.”
To download a PDF version of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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