Suspect arrested in U.S. couple’s slaying

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – St. Maarten police on Sunday arrested a suspect in the deaths of a South Carolina couple whose slashed bodies were found in their beachfront condominium on the tiny Dutch Caribbean territory.

Police spokesman Ricardo Henson said a man was arrested Sunday but had not been charged.

Citing privacy rules, Henson declined to give further details about the suspect, saying police will issue a statement “as soon as more information can be divulged.”

The bodies of Michael and Thelma King were found Friday in their condominium at the Ocean Club Resort on St. Maarten, a 16-square-mile territory with about 50,000 inhabitants that shares a small island with the French dependency of St. Martin.

Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos said both Americans appeared to have suffered fatal stab wounds. The woman was found tied to a chair, and the man was lying on the floor, partially over an overturned chair. Both were in their 50s.

Friends say the Kings were part-time residents of St. Maarten and owned several homes. They also owned a condominium in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Terry Tamblyn, a resident of South Carolina’s coastal city of Isle of Palms, said King was a retired insurance executive who later started a successful printing business. He said King owned a couple of restaurants on St. Maarten.