murder suspect waives extradition

Judith Mcelroy Carranza

Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall said one suspect has waived extradition and authorities are waiting to see if the other does in the murder of a Marshall County woman.

29 year old Elizabeth Dawn Austin,  and 31 year old Curtis Lee Austin, have been charged with murder in the death of her aunt, 60 year old Judith Mcelroy Carranza, of Horton. The woman has waived extradition from Panama City Beach, Fla., but her husband had not by Friday afternoon, Marshall said. He said he’s not sure when the couple will be returned to Alabama.

The Austins also face charges stemming from the robbery last Saturday of Babe’s Lounge in Attalla.

Both the Austins face felony child abuse charges in Etowah County as well.

They were arrested in November and released on bond; the cases against them had been bound over for a grand jury.

Marshall said Carranza would have been a witness in those child abuse cases. He said it’s not known if that played a role in her death but that investigators continue to try to determine the cause for the killing.

While the autopsy is not complete, Marshall confirmed that the preliminary cause of death is strangulation.

Carranza had been reported missing April 1 from the residence where the Austins sometimes stayed with her. That circumstance raised the suspicions of investigators as they learned Curtis Austin was a suspect in an Attalla robbery. They began talking to family members, who thought the Austins might be in Panama City Beach, and asked police there to look for the Austins and the white Ford Mustang that Curtis Austin was known to drive. PCB police found the car and watched it, then took the couple into custody when they returned to the car.