Man Pleads Guilty In Case Of Missing Woman

(OWENSBORO, Ky.) -- A western Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to taking part in the disappearance and killing of an Owensboro woman missing since August 2003.

Rodney Wayne Lyle, 32, told a Daviess County judge on Monday that Carole Embery Hamilton, 32, was strangled at a West Louisville home, then her body was taken to McClean County. Lyle pleaded guilty to criminal facilitation to commit murder in exchange for a recommended five-year prison sentence.

Lyle agreed to testify against his former co-defendants, including his wife, Michelle, and 32-year-old William Ashley Yeagle of Rumsey, both of whom were charged with murder. Hamilton's body has never been found, although investigators believed it was dumped in the Green River.

Lyle testified that Yeagle strangled Hamilton on the night of Aug. 22, 2003, at Lyle's house while he and his wife were there.

Commonwealth's Attorney Jay Wethington said it remained unclear why Hamilton was killed.

Wethington said a new search is planned for a stretch of the Green River near Yeagle's house.

Hamilton also pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in a separate case and to being a persistent felony offender and faces a combined recommended sentence of 18 years in prison.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)