Sister of accused Franklin County ‘machete attacker’ speaks out

The sister of a man who stands accused of attacking a couple at the Redding Campground area in Franklin County on Monday says her brother, Mike Warrington, is not the man that he is being made out to be by the local press, who have already tagged him with with nickname “Machete Attacker.”

“Mike is not that guy,” said Dorene Warrington. “I know what people will think..’she’s his sister. Of course she’s going to say that. But I’m telling you … Mike was living life and enjoying it. This is completely not him.”

A lot of people who know Warrington seem to concur with her. Even people that observed him and met with him as he was camped out at the National Forest facility on the Mulberry River say he seemed friendly, “nice” and perfectly normal in the days leading up the incident.

Dorene Warrington granted Inside Fort Smith an exclusive interview on Thursday night.

Here are the fact as put forth by the Franklin County Sheriff Office on Thursday afternoon:

The Franklin County Sheriff office identified the suspect in the incident as Michael Warrington of Florida. He was described as a white male, 49, driving a 2002 silver Ford truck with Florida tags. He was said to be traveling with a black and white dog, having fled the area and thought to be no longer in Arkansas. They listed Warrington as “armed and dangerous.”

The victims have been identified as Christopher Bellenger and Tori Harris, both of Oklahoma.

The incident, which occurred near the Redding Campground area was reported like this:

A Clarksville couple who were finishing a day of kayaking on the Mulberry river said a couple in a canoe came up screaming to “call 911.”

The couple, later identified as Bellenger and Harris, stated that “an older man who was camping with a large white dog had tried to ‘hack them with a machete’ and tried to kidnap the female half of the couple.

The man had a severe cut on his arm and appeared to be bleeding heavily from the wound. Deputies with the sheriff’s office were dispatched to the area but could not locate Warrington.

So how did a Chipley, Florida, man, who makes his living as a professional poker player mainly on the World Series of Poker circuit, come to be in the boondocks in Arkansas on the day before the Fourth of July in the first place?

“Mike had been traveling across he country, playing in various poker tournaments and side games at casinos along the way,” said Dorene Warrington. “He had told us that he was camping out instead of staying in motels to save some money and he had apparently been at that campground for several days.”

Warrington, a Navy veteran, has been playing on the professional poker circuit part-time since at least 2011. In his career, he has posted $99,312 in winnings, but $51,712 of that amount had been won in the past 10 months as he cashed in on eight tournaments on the WSOP circuit.

Another site credits him with $102,992 in career winnings.

Dorene Warrington said he had just won a seat in a million-dollar tournament for an August tournament.

“Mike quit his job and went full time into poker last year,” said Dorene. “He is good at what he does and the future was bright for him as a poker player. So none of this makes sense.”

After being contacted by police on Monday saying she needed to call the FCSO “about her brother” she did so to learn about the allegations against him.

“I will never believe it in a million years,” said Dorene. “People that know him … his friends and his family … know that this isn’t in his nature.”

Despite knowing that her brother was being sought by police, Dorene posted an innocuous post and a picture of Mike with his dog on Facebook pages throughout the region:

“This is my brother, Michael Warrington. He and his dog have been missing since July 3rd from Ozark, Arkansas (Franklin County) He is in a 2002 silver ford truck with Florida tag and a New York Yankee vanity plate on the front. Please if you have any info message me or call the police. I please everyone share this so that we can spread this all over to find my brother. This pic was taken two days before he disappeared.”

“I wanted to see what people were saying about the incident,” said Dorene. “Immediately people started telling me that Mike was being sought in reference to the campground incident which I already knew.”

That original post has been shared 2,316 times and has drawn hundreds of comments. Noteworthy in the comments is the fact that, apparently, there was no “machete” used in the incident and comments by people who know Warrington immediately reacted in a skeptical manner.

Even people who had met Warrington during his stay at the campground described him as “nice, friendly, good-natured and a good guy” and someone who would have had to have been provoked to commit such an act.

One poster stated:

“My husband and I saw him Monday July 3rd around 2-3 p.m. He talked to us as we floated by. It was just small talk and he said he enjoyed hanging out at that spot away from all of the commotion down at the Redding take out spot. He just said it was a nice place to camp if you wanted somewhere quiet. Didn’t seem to be suspicious or acting weird at all. I’m pretty positive he had a blue tent pitched by him and the silver ford was behind him. I’m hoping more details surface and that he is found.”

“There is way more to this story than being told and a lot about this attack makes no sense at all,” said Dorene. “I am trying to find my brother if he is hurt and missing. Whether it went down like those two people say or something else happened, which probably did, we just want him found.”

Dorene shared another fact that might give investigators pause to think.

“Michael had a large sum of money with him … we had just recently withdrew a bunch of money from his bank account and he was excited beyond belief about having won that seat in that million-dollar tournament,” said Dorene. “He was carrying thousands of dollars with him, and is the kind of guy who would walk away from a confrontation instead of starting one.”

Further facts have come to light in the past 24 hours.

Dorene, between bouts of tears and trying to compose herself, provided several details concerning the investigation, but asked they not be made public out of deference to the law enforcementagencies working the case.

But she also said that some of the evidence as presented to her just doesn’t match up.

Police were able to identity Warrington through some charred remains on papers found in the campsite, indicating that someone was trying to burn up evidence before they left the site.

“So … you just attacked two people with a knife so instead of just getting in your vehicle ad taking off, you’re going to take papers out of your truck and burn them in order to cover your trail?” asked Dorene. “Why not just take those papers with you instead of running the risk of someone finding them if they didn’t burn completely up?”

In addition, law enforcement notified Dorene at 11:32 p.m the night of the incident that they had gotten a cell phone “ping” off of Warrington’s phone from the Jackson, Tenneesee, area.

The attack allegedly happened around 6 pm. on Monday. Which means sometime before 11:32 p.m Warrington made the drive from the campground to Jackson, Tennessee, a distance of 356 miles. Google Maps gives a “fastest route” estimation of five hours and 19 minutes on I-40. Police also had to get the information about the ping before they contacted Dorene at 11:32 p.m.

Which would leave Warrington with 13 minutes (or less) for any restroom stops or traffic delays if he were traveling the posted speed limits.

Possible? Probably. Plausible? The question remains.

“So let’s run through the scenario again,” said Dorene. “My brother, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, attacks two people with a ‘machete’ for no reason, takes time to ‘clean-up’ the ‘crime scene’ including trying to burn up papers he could have just as easily take with him.

“I’m assuming he would have been smart enough not to speed and draw attention to himself since he was fleeing. But he makes it all the way to Jackson, Tennessee, sometime before 11:32 … no bathroom or food stops along the way?”

“Plus, he supposedly has a head wound he suffered in the ‘fight,'” said Dorene. “You would think he would have had to stop a few times along the way just to deal with that.”

There are rumors that Mike may have been suicidal, but Dorene says even the thought of that is ludicrous.

“I know Mike, said Dorene. “Even if something has gone completely wrong and he did go off the deep end, he would not have dragged complete strangers into it. He would have just went off and done it … he wouldn’t have dragged other people into the mix.”

“I’m not a detective or an investigator, but a lot of this just seems like common sense stuff to me,” said Dorene.

“Yeah … I’m his sister so I am supposed to say these things,” said Dorene. “But this just doesn’t add up.”

“If anyone knows anything please call the Franklin County Sheriff Office. “If he did this, then he did it. But you will never convince me that he did.”

“We just want to find him safe either way.”

Despite that hope, Dorene says she has a gut feeling that something has happened to Mike.

“If he is alive he would have gotten in touch with one of us,” said Dorene. “I have called his cell phone a hundred times and it goes straight to voice mail. Even if he did this and is on the run he would have stopped and bought a throwaway phone and called one of us.

“One way or another, I think he’s gone. That is just my gut feeling.”