Dr. Ralph Arnold Smith Jr., 70, is charged with conspiring to kill attorney Lee Abraham, who represented Smith’s ex-wife. The divorce records were sealed in 2005, but docket entries show the couple fought over money long after the divorce was granted in 1998.

At the preliminary hearing Wednesday, Greenwood police detective Jeff Byars testified that the doctor kept a hidden camera in his office. A video from the camera shows Smith telling an alleged hit man, Keaira Byrd, 23, that he wanted a photo showing Abraham dead.

“Take a picture of him with a bullet between his eyes,” Byars said, describing the video.

The men’s faces were not visible on the video, and some of it was inaudible.

Byrd was carrying a semi-automatic pistol with a 30-round clip when he walked into Abraham’s office April 28, according to Byars. It’s not yet clear if Byrd or the investigators shot first.

Byrd’s associate, Derrick Lacy, 25, was as shot several times in the back and in the leg and has been released on house arrest while he recovers. Lacy is charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

County Judge Kevin Adams determined there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury. The judge ordered the doctor held without bond on the capital murder charge and on a conspiracy to commit murder charge. His bond remained $100,000 on a second conspiracy to commit murder charge.

The two conspiracy charges are both related to plots to kill Abraham, but involve different men the doctor approached to help carry out the plan, according to testimony.

Cordarious Robinson, 22, is charged in the second conspiracy count. Authorities said Smith paid Robinson $15,000 for two guns and to “put his ear to the ground to find someone to take out Lee Abraham.”

It’s not clear if Robinson enlisted Byrd, but authorities said the two men met up the day of the shooting.

Smith’s relatives wept when the judge said he would remain in jail. Smith, with graying hair, a white beard and glasses, appeared detached through much of the hearing, often looking down, sitting with his legs crossed with a brown envelope and his hands clasped on his lap. At times, he shook his head from side to side when testimony suggested he hired someone to kill Abraham.

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Agent Mark Steed testified that some type of plot against Abraham could go back as far as two years

Abraham was armed and watching the back door of his law office at the time of the shooting, but the suspects came in the front, Byars said.

Byars said a police investigation discovered a list of possible hit men and where they could be found. Some people in the crowd gasped as names were read.

Both cars were found on remote stretches of highway and neither appeared to have had mechanical problems, said Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain.

If people have a suspicion that an imposter is trying to pull them over, they should call 911 or (asterisk)47, Strain said.

Shell casings were found at the scene of both shootings and were being analyzed and Strain said it would be premature to release other details about the type of weapon used.

The motive is still under investigation. Both cars were red, but Strain said that could be a coincidence.

Strain said Carswell’s 1997 Pontiac Grand Am was found on the shoulder of the highway, but her body was found in the road near the intersection of Mississippi 713 and Interstate 69.

“We don’t know how she wound up outside of the vehicle, but she was out of the car,” Strain said.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Joey Miller said last week that Schlender’s body was found in his car, which crashed into a divider in the median. He was alone in the 1999 Ford F-150 and no other motorists were hurt.

Miller has said five shell casings were found on the interstate after that shooting.

Tunica and Panola counties are near one another in the northern part of the state. Tunica County is most known for its casinos on the Mississippi River.

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The missing girls are 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain, 12-year-old Alexandria and 14-year-old Adrienne. They were last seen April 27 in Hardeman County, Tenn. The woman’s husband reported her missing and her car was found abandoned.

Adam Mayes, 35, is charged in Tennessee with abducting all four, but authorities are still trying to determine if Jo Ann Bain went with Mayes willingly. He was last seen Tuesday in Guntown, Miss. He’s been described as a family friend.

Siskovic said the bodies were found in a residence, but it wasn’t clear if it was a house, mobile home or apartment. He also wasn’t sure if the residence belonged to Mayes or an acquaintance of his. Siskovic said the bodies were found in Guntown, north of Tupelo. Lee County coroner Carolyn Green said the bodies were found outside Guntown in Union County.

Siskovic said authorities talked to Mayes early on in the investigation, but he fled when they tried to contact him again. The FBI says they were not immediately aware of Mayes having a criminal record.

Authorities had said that Mayes could be in Mississippi but that he has ties to Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert on Saturday morning, and Tennessee authorities had also issued an alert.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said in a news release Saturday that Mayes “is considered armed and extremely dangerous,”

Authorities described Adrienne as a white girl with brown hair and eyes. She’s 5 feet 4 inches tall and 129 pounds. Alexandria has brown hair and hazel eyes and is 5 feet tall and 105 pounds. Kyliyah has blonde hair and brown eyes and is 4 feet tall and 57 pounds.

Mayes has brown hair and blue eyes and is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds.

However, authorities said Mayes may have cut his hair, as well as cut and dyed the girls’ hair to disguise their identities.

Anyone with information is asked to call 601-987-1353 or 1-800-TBI-FIND.

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Manufacturers can barely keep up with demand, and some states are offering grants and other financial incentives to help pay for the added protection and peace of mind.

Tom Cook didn’t need convincing. When a 2008 tornado barreled toward his home in rural southwest Missouri, Cook, his wife and their teenage daughter sought refuge in a bathroom. It wasn’t enough. His wife was killed.

Cook moved to nearby Joplin to rebuild, never imaging he would confront another monster twister. But he had a safe room installed in the garage just in case.

On May 22, Cook and his daughter huddled inside the small steel enclosure while an EF-5 tornado roared outside. They emerged unharmed, although the new house was gone.

“It was blown away completely — again,” he said. “The only thing standing was that storm room.”

Generations ago, homes across America’s Tornado Alley often came equipped with storm cellars, usually a small concrete bunker buried in the backyard. Although some of those remain, they are largely relics of a bygone era. And basements are less common than they used to be, leaving many people with no refuge except maybe a bathtub or a room deep inside the house.

The renewed interest in shelters was stirred by last year’s staggering death toll — 358 killed in the South and 161 dead in Joplin. So far this year, more than 60 people have perished in U.S. twisters.

Safe rooms feature thick steel walls and doors that can withstand winds up to 250 mph. They are typically windowless, with no light fixtures and no electricity — just a small, reinforced place to ride out the storm. Costs generally range from $3,500 to $6,000.

Sizes vary, but most hold only a few people. They can be bolted to the floor of a garage or custom-fitted to squeeze into a small space, even a closet. Some are so small occupants have to crawl inside. A few are buried in the yard like the old storm shelters of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Before the twister devastated Joplin, the Neosho, Mo., safe room manufacturer called Twister Safe had four employees. Now it has 20.

“Business has probably quadrupled, at least,” owner Enos Davis said. “We’re selling 400 to 500 a year now, compared to maybe 100 before.”

Twister Safe’s spike in business is even more impressive in Missouri, which does not offer grant money for safe rooms, opting to use its share of federal disaster money for community shelters.

Missouri’s choice spotlights a debate in states seeking better tornado protection: Is disaster aid better spent on safe rooms in individual homes or on larger public shelters designed to protect hundreds or thousands of people?

The downside of public shelters is getting there. Even with improvements in twister prediction, venturing out into a rapidly brewing storm is perilous.

“I wouldn’t get my family into a car and run that risk,” Joplin Assistant City Manager Sam Anselm said. “If you have the opportunity to put something in your house, that’s what we would encourage folks to do.”

In January, more than 50 people sought safety in a dome-shaped public shelter as a tornado ripped through Maplesville, Ala. No one was hurt.

“The shelter did what it was supposed to do,” Mayor Aubrey Latham said.

Since 2005, 31 community shelters have been built in Missouri using FEMA funds, and nine others are under construction, according to Mike O’Connell of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.

That number is about to grow. Joplin voters earlier this month approved a $62 million bond issue that will be combined with insurance money and federal aid to build storm shelters at every school. The shelters will double as gyms, classrooms or kitchens.

After more than five dozen tornadoes struck Alabama on April 27, 2011, FEMA gave the state $17 million for safe rooms. More than 4,300 people filed applications for grants. Of those, nearly half have been approved. The others are still being reviewed.

“They absolutely save lives,” said Art Faulkner, director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

Alabama is also using $49 million in FEMA money for community shelters.

Following the 2011 tornadoes, nearly 6,200 applications were submitted to Mississippi’s “A Safe Place to Go” program, which also uses FEMA funds. That was more requests than the program’s $8 million could fund.

Among those who received money were Renee and Larry Seales of Smithville, Miss., where 16 people died in a 2011 twister, including both of Renee’s parents. They built a dome-shaped bunker buried in their yard.

“I don’t know how many have been put in Smithville, but it seems like every house has one,” Renee Seales said.

Since 2009, nearly 16,000 people in Arkansas have received rebates of up to $1,000 to add residential safe rooms.

In Joplin, the state’s preference for community shelters leaves residents to pay for safe rooms out of pocket. But for many, the cost is well worth it.

Last May, Debbie and Darrell Nichols hunched inside their safe room in the garage as soon as the tornado sirens began blaring. The roof of their neighbor’s home came crashing through their kitchen, and it probably would have killed them. Inside the reinforced room, they were unhurt.

“We were holding hands and holding onto each other,” Debbie Nichols said. “Then you hear the glass breaking and the roar, and your ears begin to pop. We walked out, and it was like a scene from ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”

Betty Harryman was in a Joplin hospital about to have open-heart surgery when the twister hit. Her bad heart probably saved her life: Her home was leveled.

So when Harryman rebuilt, she added a small safe room where she keeps bottled water and a battery-operated light, fan and radio.

“After what happened,” she said, “we thought it would be stupid not to have a safe room.”

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Mohr reported from Smithville and Jackson, Miss. Salter reported from St. Louis.