Probable cause affidavit details killing, moving of pregnant 16-year-old’s body

Published 12:27 am Friday, April 1, 2022

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Witness statements from three people, including one who is now charged with murder, helped lead Jefferson County authorities to a second arrest for murder this week.

The second arrest, executed in the pre-dawn hours Thursday with the help of Liberty Hill Police and Williamson County Sheriff’s Office personnel, was of Chelsea Ann-Marie Shipp.

The 24-year-old Winnie woman is believed by police officers to have shot and killed 16-year-old Katelynn Nicole Stone of Vidor.

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According to Shipp’s probable cause affidavit for arrest, authorities were working under the belief that Stone was pregnant at the time of her killing.

The other suspect arrested on a charge of murder, 22-year-old Cody Arnold, was picked up by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies Sunday at his home in Jefferson County.

Police said that is the time and place where they discovered Stone’s body.

“The upper portion of the body was wrapped in a black garbage bag and the lower portion was wrapped in a blanket,” according to the probable cause affidavit. “There was a shell casing in plain view on a pillow.”

Arnold is being held in Jefferson County under a $1 million bond.

Police were led to the arrests and victim discovery largely due to two witness statements and the initial cooperation of Arnold, the arrest document states.

A Winnie woman told police that Shipp called her Saturday morning and asked to switch vehicles and use the woman’s car.

The Winnie woman obliged and loaned the vehicle in exchange for Shipp’s truck.

At approximately 11 p.m. Saturday, the woman asked for her car back.

Shipp brought the vehicle back at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday.

During their encounter, Shipp told the woman that “I got rid of her” in relation to Stone, according to the arrest document. Shipp went on to say she shot Stone and “made a shooting motion with two fingers as if she was shooting a gun.”

According to the arrest document, Shipp told the Winnie woman that Arnold “now has to do what he has to do.”

Cody Arnold

The Winnie woman reached out to her father-in-law, who is a constable in Chambers County. The constable advised her to reach to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office immediately.

The Winnie woman’s nephew also told police that Shipp told him that she had killed Stone. The nephew was asked to help move the body and he refused.

A Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office detective used this information to contact Arnold at his home, 14529 Kolb’s Corner, which is listed as a Beaumont address in rural western Jefferson County.

According to the arrest warrant, Arnold let the detective in to search the home, where Stone’s body was discovered in a bedroom.

Arnold told police that Shipp shot and killed Stone between 2 and 3 p.m. on Saturday. Arnold told police that Shipp had told him that he would get in trouble for getting Stone pregnant.

Arnold was arrested Sunday. Shipp was arrested four days later in Liberty Hill.

Reports to police were Stone, originally of Vidor, was living with Arnold before she was killed.

Shipp was transported back to Jefferson County Thursday afternoon and booked into the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on the charge of murder. Her bond is set at $1 million.