FORMER Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins was brutally stabbed in June 2019 by her then-best friend, Rebecca O'Donnell.
O'Donnell initially pleaded not guilty but later confessed to the crime after striking a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
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Who is Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell?
Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell served as Collins' aide and was once her best friend.
The pair had hit it off after O'Donnell's then-fiance, Tim Loggains, introduced them.
"She and I shared political views, had a lotta common interests and goals from a legislative perspective, and that was the basis of the start of our friendship," Loggains told ABC News about his relationship with Collins.
Loggains knew O'Donnell through grade school and high school, and told the outlet, "So we knew each other basically our whole lives."
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Collins was elected to the US Senate in 2014 and 2018, and O'Donnell played an integral role in carrying out her campaign for both elections.
Then, when Collins and her then-husband, Phil Smith, filed for divorce after 20 years of marriage, O'Donnell attended as a witness for the divorce proceedings.
In the years leading up to Collins' murder, she and O'Donnell were incredibly close, according to a mutual friend.
The person told People, "They were inseparable. If you ever wanted to know what was going on with Linda, you could ask Becky. And vice versa.
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"They did everything together, and they were close confidantes. They called each other 'sisters,' even though they weren't blood relations.”
What happened to Linda Collins?
Collins returned to her home in Pocahontas, Arkansas from a visit to Washington, DC in June 2019.
Her family said they knew she returned home, but when they didn't hear from her, they became worried.
According to her daughter, Heather Tate Williams, text messages and phone calls weren't going through to Collins' phone. After a week, she and her brother Butch Smith went to their mother's home.
"I could see where her suitcase was there with the tags on it," Butch told ABC, adding that her purse and cell phone were missing.
They went through the house calling for her and noticed what looked to be coffee spilled on the kitchen floor.
Investigators would later determine it was blood.
Smith searched through the home looking for his mother when he eventually found her body covered by a tarp in the driveway.
"I was just kind of in shock," he said, "I saw my mom there."
Sheriff Kevin Bell said in a 20/20 exclusive, "Butch found his mother's body in an advanced state of decomposition.
"Looking at the scene and the circ*mstances around it, it was obvious that it was a murder."
Collins had video cameras around her home, but police found they had all been destroyed. However, they learned that backups of the video footage still existed.
It was on these videos that they learned Collins was stabbed to death, and O'Donnell was seen destroying the cameras while holding a bloody knife.
O'Donnell was driving with Loggains to Collins' funeral when they were pulled over by police and O'Donnell was arrested at the scene.
"We took 'em out basically at gunpoint," Bell said in the 20/20 interview. Loggains was not arrested.
O'Donnell was charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence but continued to plead not guilty.
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She claimed she was set up and blamed Collins' ex-husband for the murder.
O'Donnell finally admitted to murdering her friend in a straightforward plea, telling authorities, "I went to Linda’s house and I intentionally killed her and then hid the body."
Was Rebecca O'Donnell convicted?
O'Donnell pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse and later pleaded "no contest" to two counts of solicitation to commit capital murder in another county, in relation to a separate murder-for-hire plot, according to ABC News.
Her motive remains unknown, but Smith told People he believed O'Donnell was quietly stealing money from his mother, and when she confronted O'Donnell, she was murdered.
Although O'Donnell was never charged with the missing money, Bell said he and other investigators believe it is possible.
"I think that Becky reached a point where she decided there was no other way out," Bell said.
O'Donnell was convicted in August 2020 for the murder of Collins' and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
While in prison, O'Donnell confided in her cellmates, conducting a murder-for-hire plot to kill Collins' ex-husband and his new wife.
Her fellow inmates were reportedly due to be released from prison soon, and for payment, she told them there was gold and silver in Smith's home that was theirs if they agreed to the job.
"It was my understanding that the inmates were soon to be released," Bell told ABC. "And then once they got out, she had set it up for them to help her commit this murder."
O'Donnell's fellow inmates, Cassandra Geoffrion, and Melissa Duede, brought authorities to proof in the form of a fake suicide note O'Donnell had given them to plant after Smith had been killed.
"The reason I said something was because I felt like somebody else might actually go through with the plan," Geoffrion told the outlet. "And I care about other people's lives."
"It shows her personality," Bell said. "She's homicidal, you know, from the very beginning."
In the wake of O'Donnell's conviction, Collins' family said in a statement they were relieved the person who killed their mother is behind bars.
"We know that there will be some that will not be satisfied with that outcome today. And we realize that whatever punishment [O'Donnell] receives, it will never be enough.
"... No amount of punishment will ever fill that void that [O'Donnell] made in our lives the day she killed our Mother.
"Today we find some shred of peace that Rebecca O'Donnell will be put away in prison for a very long time unable to hurt anyone else.
"If my Mother was here today I have no doubt that she would quote the Bible and tell us that we can find peace in God."
Phil Smith said, "My family and I are grateful that justice has been done. My request is to be left in peace and that Linda be allowed to rest in peace."
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that on October 29, 2020, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said O'Donnell had been moved from an Arkansas prison — the McPherson Unit in Newport — to an out-of-state agency for security reasons.
Per the outlet, ADC spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said a crime victims notification went out on October 28, 2020, and announced that O'Donnell was transferred out of state.
Murphy said the transfer was made for security reasons and would not reveal O'Donnell's new location.
A Dateline episode about Collins' murder is airing on Friday, July 12, 2024, at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT on NBC.
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Leading up to the episode, Dateline NBC's X account wrote, "Her legacy should be enshrined in the halls of marble at the Arkansas State Legislature, but instead, it's the horror of her death for which she's probably best remembered now… "
The episode previously premiered on April 8, 2022, per IMDb.
