A man out on bond for the January vandalism and theft of copper wire at the Tifton Mall and his female companion were arrested Wednesday in Alabama and charged with murdering two people in Florida. The woman’s sons, ages 8 and 14, were with the couple when they were arrested.

John Eugene Odom, 38, and Susan Marie Wallen, 32, both of Lakeland, Fla., are charged with killing a two men in Lakeland Saturday. According to the Polk County Florida Sheriff’s Office, Henry Todd Burder was gagged and shot to death and his body was found in his Lakeland, Fla. home Saturday. Burder’s stepbrother, Dion White, was also brutally murdered and his body was found Sunday. Tipsters told authorities that a man and woman who lived together in Lakeland, Fla., stole Bruder’s 2005 Nissan Altima. Warrants were issued for the couple’s arrest on grand theft auto charges.

Ocala, Fla., police located Bruder’s stolen vehicle abandoned at a Quality Inn off I-75 in Ocala. Agents who searched the hotel room Sunday found it empty and the investigation revealed that the pair fled in a U-Haul that they had rented Sunday. They were believed then to be headed north on I-75. Bruder and Wallen were spotted in Auburn, Ala., Tuesday.

Carrie Rodgers, the public information officer for the Polk County Sheriff’s Dept., stated in a Wednesday e-mail that details about the arrests were sketchy, but it is believed that Odom and Wallen walked into a ranger station at a Tuskegee National Forest Park in east-central Alabama, east of Montgomery in Macon County. Sheriff’s deputies were apparently in the ranger’s station at the time and recognized Odom and Wallen from bulletins sent to them by the Polk County Sheriff’s Dept. The two were taken into custody immediately and without incident. The U-Haul was parked outside and Wallen’s children were inside the vehicle. Wallen and Odom were each charged with two counts of first-degree murder and grand theft auto.

Odom was arrested on Jan. 19 when he pulled a U-Haul behind the Tifton Mall and police found coils of copper wire in the van. A roofing company who had performed work on the mall’s roof Jan. 7 was called back to the mall to find that someone had destroyed five heating and cooling units by cutting out the cooper coils. Tifton police officer Danny Hayes was parked on the Second Street bridge over I-75 at 3 a.m. that Saturday when he observed a U-Haul van drive from behind the mall. He wrote in his report that he continued to watch the van, which was being driven very slowly, continue through the lot and stop near the Belk’s entrance.

The van stopped briefly and then began to back up to the mall between Belk’s and the mall’s rear entrance. Lt. Jerry Brogdon was summoned to the mall. Hayes exited his patrol car and approached the van when Odom, who was driving it, walked toward the front of the vehicle. Hayes ordered him to take his hands out of his pockets and get onto the ground. Hayes stated that Odom hesitated, so he ordered him again, at gunpoint, to take his hands out of his pockets and get on the ground. Odom complied and Hayes wrote that he waited for backup before taking further action.

Brogdon arrived and Hayes patted Odom down for weapons and ordered him to remain on the ground. Hayes wrote that he walked to the rear of the van and found its roll-up door open with what appeared to be commercial-grade cooling coils inside.

Odom was charged with theft by taking and was released April 5 on a $1,875 property bond.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.