Charlotte, North Carolina police on May 19 arrested a Union County man in the disappearance of a state insurance investigator missing since the previous Wednesday.

Police said Monday that Michael Arthur Howell, 44, of Indian Trail, was charged with first-degree murder and was being held in the Mecklenburg County jail, the Charlotte Observer reported. Howell owned and operated Dillworth Insurance Agency where Sallie Rohrbach was investigating a complaint. The agency in question has never been a PIA agency. Details of the complaint, which normally would be made public, are not being released because of the ongoing police investigation, according to Chrissy Pearson, a Department of Insurance spokesman.

Rohrbach, who disappeared last Wednesday, was assigned to look through files, review Howell’s books and interview him, according to Pearson.

Police had the agency cordoned off early Monday. They did not say how they linked Howell to Rohrbach or whether a body had been found. Rohrbach had been scheduled to return to Raleigh on Friday. The insurance department said no one had heard from Rohrbach since Wednesday at the insurance agency.

Rohrbach is a field examiner who is sent to various areas to investigate complaints about insurance agencies and in some cases she is gone up to a week, state officials said.

Charlotte Man Arrested for Murder (Charlotte NC Observer 5/19/08)

May 20, 2008