MORGANTOWN — The man accused by police of killing two people whose bodies were found last month in a burning car in Butler County traveled to Tennessee and checked into a hotel less than two hours after police were notified about the car, a detective testified on Thursday.

Charles “Cotton” Lindsey, 33, and Helen Rone, 21, both of Roundhill, appeared in Butler District Court for a preliminary hearing. Butler District Judge John McCarty sent the cases against Lindsey and Rone to a grand jury.

Police have charged Lindsey with murder and Rone and Arlexis Kawai, 22, of Bowling Green, with complicity to murder. 

Kawai, who is in Warren County Regional Jail in Bowling Green serving a sentence in an unrelated state criminal case, was scheduled to be in court Thursday, but no transport order had been issued and his preliminary hearing was rescheduled for Dec. 8.

Lindsey and Rone are siblings, while Rone is in a relationship with Kawai, according to court testimony.

Detective Graham Rutherford of the Kentucky State Police testified at the preliminary hearing that the two bodies that were found Nov. 9 in a car in the 700 block of Region-Reedyville Road were “burned beyond recognition” and that one of the bodies had a gunshot wound to the head.

The bodies were taken to Louisville for an autopsy, and the KSP investigated the deaths of the two people as homicides based on information from the autopsy. Police have not released the names of the people whose bodies were found.

Rutherford said that police interviewed dozens of people and that Lindsey’s name came up several times.

“A cousin of one of the victims said she believed Mr. Lindsey might have knowledge or motive,” Rutherford said in response to a question from public defender Sam Lowe, who was appointed to represent Lindsey.

Rutherford said Lindsey had claimed to have not been in the area when the homicides took place, telling police that he had gone to Tennessee to marry his girlfriend and that Rone had traveled with them.

Rutherford testified that the 911 call about the burning car happened at 4:18 p.m. Nov. 9, while Rone paid cash for a room at the Days Inn in White House, Tenn., at 5:58 p.m. the same day.

Police interviewed Lindsey’s girlfriend, Kayla Ford, who said that she had been with Rone, Lindsey and Kawai at Rone’s mother’s house on Youngs Ferry Road on Nov. 9. 

Rutherford testified that Ford recalled seeing Lindsey leaving the house, possibly with a can of lighter fluid, but did not know if he left with anyone else.

Surveillance camera footage from a car lot on Ky. 185 between Rone’s mother’s house and Region-Reedyville Road showed the car in which the two bodies would be found traveling past, followed about three minutes later by a car belonging to Rone and going in the same direction, Rutherford said.

In separate interviews with police, Ford and Rone said that they traveled with Kawai to Region-Reedyville Road, where they met Lindsey, according to Rutherford.

“Rone’s story was almost identical to Ford’s story, minus the lighter fluid,” Rutherford said.

Ford recalled that the car that police later discovered on fire was not visibly burning at the time and that Lindsey was wearing one glove at the scene, Rutherford said.

Lindsey reportedly told Kawai to “act cool” and drive him away from the scene, according to Rutherford.

From Region-Reedyville Road, Kawai drove Lindsey, Rone and Ford to the Corner Market in Roundhill, where Lindsey reportedly divulged that he had shot the two people police would later discover, according to the detective.

From there, the car traveled to Brownsville, stopped in Bowling Green and continued to Tennessee.

Kawai and Rone were arrested on Nov. 18, and police arrested Lindsey two days later in Bowling Green on a warrant charging him with murder.

Lindsey spoke multiple times to police without an attorney, claiming during one interview that a different perpetrator committed the crimes.

Rutherford testified that Lindsey claimed to have left Youngs Ferry Road with the two victims and while they were stopped somewhere, another person jumped into the vehicle and started arguing with the other two.

Lindsey then left the vehicle to make a phone call and claimed to have heard three gunshots during that time, Rutherford said.

Lindsey named the person who reportedly jumped in the vehicle, but Rutherford testified that police have not been able to locate this person.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.