07/14/2006

MINQUADALE, Del. (AP)-  The former boyfriend of a woman missing and presumed dead along with a male companion has been arrested on drug charges.

New Castle County police describe 36-year-old Clifford Wright as a "person of interest" in the homicide investigation involving two bodies found yesterday in a van belonging to 40-year-old Tamela Gardner of Mill Creek.

Police spokesman Corporal Trinidad Navarro says Wright was charged today with two counts of delivery of cocaine. Wright also was charged July Fifth with aggravated harassment of Gardner and was ordered to have no contact with her.

Gardner and an acquaintance, 41-year-old Gabe Gabrielli of Middletown, have been missing since Sunday, when they were seen leaving a Stanton bar. The bodies of a man and a woman were found yesterday inside Gardner's burned van in Tweed's Park, a few miles north of the home she shared with Wright until about two weeks ago.

The state medical examiner's office began conducting autopsies on the bodies on Friday.