Doctor not yet questioned in slaying

Arkansas authorities said Wednesday they haven't yet questioned a Carson City doctor, accused of kidnapping his ex-wife at gunpoint, in an unsolved Conway, Ark., murder last month.

"We want to complete the search of the residence before we begin to question him," said Major Mark Elsinger of the Conway Police Department.

Carter Elliott, 49, and his employee, Timothy Robertson, 25, were found dead in Elliott's upscale Conway home May 19.

Dr. Richard Conte, 54, an emergency room physician with Carson-Tahoe Hospital, is being held in the Douglas County Jail with a $1 million cash-only bail in the kidnapping of his ex-wife Lark Gathright-Elliott from her Utah home last week.

Gathright-Elliott was once married to Carter Elliott.

The couple have two grown children.

Members of the victim's family called authorities Friday, saying Conte had threatened to kill Elliott and himself, according to court records.

As officers from the Carson City Sheriff's Department were securing the outside of the home for Douglas County authorities, Gathright-Elliott stumbled from the home and Conte peacefully surrendered to police.

Items inside Conte's home prompted authorities here to contact Arkansas police, Elsinger said.

Elliott's brother, Richard Gathright, said police found a mapquest.com map of Conway Ark., on Conte's computer.

Elsinger was unable to substantiate that claim.

"I can't verify one way or another if that is true," he said.

Tom Perkins of the Douglas County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday, "We have filed a second-degree kidnapping charge on him and we intend to prosecute."

Conte has lived in the Carson City-area for the last 12 years.

Gordon Hutting, the hospital's director of risk management and quality,

said Conte is not an employee of the hospital but contracted through Carson-Tahoe Emergency Physicians, a private medical group.