Former Arkansas state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith was found dead in her home with a gunshot wound, according to her former press secretary.
Ken Yang told KATV that Collins-Smith’s death was being investigated as a murder.
Yang said Collins-Smith’s neighbors heard gunshots a day or so before her body was found in her Pocahontas, Ark., home.
When authorities discovered her body, it had begun to decompose, the Ark Times reported.
Collins-Smith, a Democrat-turned-Republican, lost her reelection bid in 2018. She and her husband, retired Circuit Judge Philip Smith, divorced in October.
The former senator, 57, was a staunch supporter of guns, introducing legislation to allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses and in courtrooms.
“You can’t be pro-gun enough in Arkansas,” she said during her reelection campaign.
The state Republican Party said “she was a passionate voice for her people and a close member of our Republican family.”
The Democratic Party of Arkansas called Collins-Smith a “friend and warm person.”
