Man Accused Of Ex's Attempted Murder In North Carolina Now Charged In Connection With Girlfriend’s Death In Kansas

A man taken into custody for attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend in North Carolina is now also under arrest in connection with the death of his girlfriend in Kansas, authorities said.

On Dec. 5, Joseph R. Deluca, 37, went to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, in North Carolina, and allegedly gave deputies evidence concerning his girlfriend in Kansas, Elaina M. Asprea, 47, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said.

While at the station, deputies arrested Deluca on a Robeson County warrant for trying to kill his 35-year-old ex-girlfriend in July while she was in her car on the highway near Red Springs, North Carolina, according to The Robesonian.

He was booked into the Cumberland County Detention Center in connection with the case and charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, KXAN reported.

The day after Deluca’s arrest, deputies from the Neosho County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas acting on information out of North Carolina “that caused them concern for a woman” who lived at a rural residence in Chanute conducted a welfare check and found Deluca’s girlfriend, Asprea, dead next to a field near her home, the KBI said.

Prosecutors in Kansas charged Asprea with second-degree murder for Asprea’s death and he was served the arrest warrant in North Carolina on Dec. 29.

He’s being held on a $250,000 bond for the attempted murder of his North Carolina ex-girlfriend, and Kansas authorities ordered he be held without bond in connection with his girlfriend’s murder case.

The investigation continues.