News 12 at 11 o'clock, May 30, 2008

RICHMOND COUNTY, Ga.---Investigators searched Betty Neumar's Augusta home, checking to see if there's anything suspicious about her last husband's death. The 76-year-old is accused of murdering another husband.

North Carolina investigators say Betty Neumar got away with murder for 22 years. They believe she murdered her fourth husband and now Richmond County is investigating the death of her fifth.

"I didn't think his death was suspicious at first," said John Neumar, whose dad, John, was married to Betty 14 years.

Betty's husband, John, died this past October, and his son believed what he was told: it was by natural causes.

"But then all this other stuff came up it makes you start thinking," said John.

That other stuff is Betty's past. News 12 learned she's been married five times. Her first husband's death was ruled suspicious. The next three were found shot to death.

This past is why Richmond County got a search warrant for her house. They got John Neumar's ashes and some medical records. He was cremated, his kids say, before they even knew he was dead.

"The remains were appropriately placed in an urn," said Lt. Scott Peebles of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators will use the ashes to test for arsenic or other poisons to see if there was foul play. Lt. Peebles says someone who committed a crime like that would probably completely get rid of the evidence.

"The flip side is maybe there are people who would think once you cremate the body, there's no way to test for thing like that," he said.

But that's exactly what they'll do, and they say then they should know if there was foul play.

"We think that they'll definitely help us get some sort of grasp on what happened," said Lt. Peebles.

And figuring that out is now at the top of their minds, as well as the minds of other investigators across the country digging into Betty Neumar's past, hoping they'll find clues in order to shut the door on these cases.

Betty Neumar is still in the Richmond County jail awaiting extradition back to North Carolina.