WAYNE COUNTY — Four people have been arrested by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation charged in connection with the March 6, 2008 murder of Janie Cooley Broadway Williams.

Williams was murdered around 1 a.m., that Thursday morning inside her home on Red Brown Drive in Clara near Waynesboro.

Officials reported that Williams and her husband, Ken Williams, had just arrived home and were the only people in the home at the time a single bullet entered the house through a kitchen window striking the woman.

“The shot came through the kitchen window as Williams stood in front of her refrigerator,” Investigator Ricky Lott with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) released during the investigation. “A high power rifle was used to fire the fatal shot. “

Williams and her husband co-owned the High Noon Bar in Waynesboro, as well as a flower shop.

Wayne County Sheriff John Farrior announced during a press conference Wednesday to a packed-room of family members and friends that four people have now been charged in connection with the local businesswoman’s death.

Those arrested are: 36-year-old Angela Hope Busby, 31-year-old Jomorris Thornton, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, and 20-year-old Theaus White.

The sheriff said each of the suspects have been charged with one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Farrior said prior to these arrests, approximately 70 people were interviewed by the Sheriff’s Department and MBI during the more-than-year-long investigation.

“We wanted this (the arrests) to happen 418 days ago,” Farrior said at the press conference held at the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department. “People were afraid for their lives. They were afraid to talk to me, the sheriff.”

However Wednesday, Farrior said the break in the case came recently when one of the three individuals arrested in Perry County in an unrelated robbery case began disclosing information to Perry County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith and Investigator Jim Kelly.

Farrior said Sheriff Smith contacted him at the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and the MBI.

“They planned the murder,” the sheriff said about Williams’ death. “The motive was money.”

He said the investigation revealed that the suspects knew Williams and her husband and the motive for the murder was related to rental property owned by the victim and her husband.

Farrior said Thornton and Johnson are believed to have gotten dropped off at the road to Williams’ home by Busby. The sheriff said Thornton has admitted that he was the one who fired the weapon that killed Williams.