September 15, 2024
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The man charged last month with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the case of a Smithville woman found dead in a cornfield has now been indicted for those same offenses.
The Warren County Grand Jury recently returned three felony indictments against 43-year-old Joshua Wayne Goff stemming from the investigation into the death of 29-year-old Rebecca Maxfield whose body was found inside a vehicle at a cornfield near New Bildad Road in DeKalb County on August 9.
Goff is indicted on two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of abuse of a corpse.
His arrest came last month after a joint investigation between the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, the Smithville Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and District Attorney’s offices from both Warren and DeKalb counties.
Maxfield had been reported missing on August 4 and Warren County Sheriff’s Office investigators found her five days later. Maxfield’s body was sent to Nashville for positive identification which was confirmed four days before Goff’s arrest.
Counts one and two of the three-count indictment state between July 30 and Aug. 9 of this year, Goff “did alter, destroy or conceal any record, document or thing… with intent to impair its verity, legibility or availability as evidence in the investigation or criminal proceeding, constituting the offense of tampering with evidence.” The evidence in question, according to court documents, are a black LG cell phone, as well as Maxfield’s body.
The third indictment states during that same time span, Goff “did, without legal privilege, unlawfully and knowingly physically mistreat a corpse in a manner offensive to the sensibilities of an ordinary person, constituting the offense of abuse of a corpse.”
Goff is currently being held under a $1 million bond.
Tampering with evidence is a Class C felony and can carry a 10-year jail sentence along with a fine of up to $10,000. Abuse of a corpse, a Class E felony, can carry a sentence of between one and six years, as well as a maximum fine of $3,000.