Autopsy points to strangulation

We now know what killed a Columbus County woman, whose husband is charged with her murder.

WWAY has obtained the autopsy report for 29-year-old Carol Batten Dowless. It lists “asphyxiation due to strangulation” as her official cause of death.

The autopsy also indicated her husband, Jamie Lee Dowless, confessed to choking her and hiding her body in the woods.

Dowless disappeared in 2005. Her remains were found in September in Chadbourn, near her home. Jamie Dowless is in custody, charged with first degree murder.