NATCHEZ — A year and 10 days after police found Terry Lynn Farmer dead in her burned Shadow Lane house, three men are in jail charged with the crimes.

Police arrested Willie Duck, 33, 445 Hooker St., Fayette; Quentin M. Smith, 33, 308 Harper St., Fayette and Boris D. Ward, 37, 3357 Stampley Road on charges of attempted rape, arson and murder.

Duck, who had been charged with accessory after the fact to rape, accessory after the fact to murder and accessory after the fact to arson a month after the crime, was already in jail on unrelated robbery charges when the latest charges were filed.

All three accessory charges against Duck had previously been dropped.

“Officers have worked this practically every day since (the murder),” Police Chief Mike Mullins said. “The investigators have done an excellent job. We worked a lot of leads and interviewed a lot of suspects and witnesses. These names came up during the investigation.”

Natchez Police investigators notified Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies that they were searching for Smith and Ward.

A JCSO deputy stopped Smith in a traffic stop Friday. Ward was spotted by JCSO deputies Saturday, but he ran from them on foot. NPD investigators and two patrol officers, including the K-9 unit, were called in to assist and eventually located Ward at a Fayette apartment complex.

All three men are in jail with no bond until their arraignment today.

All three men face the same charges and were considered to be “acting in concert” with each other. All three men have a criminal history, Mullins said.

The motive is still under investigation, and Mullins said he does not anticipate any more arrests.

Natchez Police on patrol near Farmer’s house on the morning of Aug. 20, 2009, smelled the odor of smoke and followed it to Farmer’s house.

The Natchez Fire Department was called to the scene to extinguish the fire, which was too intense for the responding officers to manage.

Farmer’s body was not discovered until after the fire was extinguished.

Adams County Coroner James Lee said Farmer’s autopsy revealed the cause of death to be blunt trauma to the head and a gunshot wound to the head.

Natchez Police Sgt. Craig Godbold said at the time he believed the fire was intentionally started to destroy the scene.